Smallville: New Edition
by PiraBats3
Summary: Bruce Wayne finally comes to Smallville. Starts at Season 8's Requiem and continues to most recent episode; if you don't want spoilers, do not read if you haven't seen the episodes.
1. Requiem

**Author's Note:**

I'm a diehard fan of the DC Universe and all its related content, but as much as I like _Smallville_, I just want to smack some of the characters upside the head. So, I'm inserting Bruce Wayne/Batman to do the smacking for me. It's probably not great, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Starting from Requiem, because it seems a plausible entry point for Bruce as well as the fact that the show was dumb enough to kill off Lex Luthor, and continuing as long as I think it needs to. Reviews are adored.

Disclaimer: This is based off of the TV show _Smallville_ and all of its characters/content are copyrighted by Warner Brothers and DC Comics—this is all their stuff, I'm just putting it on paper and inserting a little something extra.

And a warning: these chapters can get rather lengthy.

This chapter starts at _Requiem_, the episode following _Power_. For a quick memory revival regarding all things _Smallville, _season eight, check out http: / en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Smallville _ (season_8) _[no spaces]_, and other Wikipedia articles.

* * *

_And all that stands between the souls release,__  
This temporary flesh and bone._  
_We know that it's over now._  
_I feel my faded mind begin to roam._

_There's nothing I can say._  
_ There's nothing we can do now._  
_ There's nothing I can say._  
_ There's nothing we can do now._  
[Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers]

* * *

Winslow Schott sat in his tiny apartment, surrounded by toys, with a large magnifying glass set up in front of his face as he delicately finished painting the tiny globe atop a miniature replica of the Daily Planet building. "The world moves so fast today," he said to no one in particular. "People forget how much better they had it as kids. When hours seemed like days, and a favorite toy could be a child's best friend."

He paused in his work as he readjusted his glasses and glanced at the doll propped up on a chair to his left. "Toys are powerful things, you know." Looking back to his work, he picked up the building to show to the seemingly dull doll. "They're vessels for the imagination endowed with life for the simple act of play." With a small click, the tiny globe began to circle atop the completed model. Winslow giggled with excitement.

* * *

It was what most of Gotham's citizens thought was a typical afternoon in the life of Bruce Wayne, playboy. A quick stop at a gallery opening, where he ignored the photographs on display but managed to get the phone number of the pretty receptionist. Lunch at a hip downtown bistro. A dash out to the country club, where he decided _not_ to play golf but instead chased the female employees around with his clubs. A trip back to central Gotham, waving at passersby from the window of his steel gray Lamborghini Murcielago.

Bruce drove the Lamborghini into the basement garage of Wayne Tower, managed to knock over a Vespa scooter on the way to his parking slot, paid the Vespa's owner twice what it would cost to replace it, stashed the Lamborghini in the spot with his name on it, and rode the elevator to the top floor where his, Lucius Fox's, and several other favored board members' offices were.

_"Mr. Wayne?"_

Twenty-seven-year-old Bruce Wayne, who was now seated in his large office, didn't bother to lower the day's Gotham Gazette that he held in front of him as the heel of one of his Ferragamo shoes moved from its spot next to the opposite one, both of which had been propped up on his almost-always spotless desk, to hit the button atop the speakerphone on the corner of the glass table. "Yes, Tracy?" the young billionaire replied in his deep and bored voice.

_"Mr. Fox would like to see you, sir."_

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed slightly as his attention was finally drawn away from the paper. "Thank you, Tracy. You can let him in."

As soon as the elder man stepped into the large room, Bruce was already on his feet, his paper atop his desk, and closing the distance between them. "Mr. Fox, it's been a while."

"Yes, I believe it has, Mr. Wayne, which is unusual for you."

The younger man grinned slightly.

"I'm going to get right down to business with you, Bruce. There's a problem in Metropolis."

"Metropolis?" the acting playboy questioned as he glanced out one of the many large windows that lined most of his office as if he could see the glistening city from there. "What kind of problem exactly?"

"I assume you know of Lex Luthor's disappearance?" Lucius questioned, earning a dark look from Bruce's eyes as they remained on the window. Lex Luthor's disappearance was probably ten times bigger than Bruce's seven-year one. Lex was in charge of his company, disappearing to leave his assistant-of-sorts to run it for him. Not only that, but while it wasn't as unexpected for moody Bruce Wayne to vanish off the face of the earth, it was surprising to find power-hungry Lex Luthor gone from his bed. Bruce had unenthusiastically looked into matters when he had the time after his return from Asia, but decided that it wasn't worth as much attention as he had been giving it when there were other, more important things going on closer to home.

But Lucius didn't await for a response before continuing. "The new CEO seems to have some unsettling priorities. Our public relations department caught wind from Queen Industries that they're planning to merge with LuthorCorp."

That wasn't good. A merger like that would provide a little too much competition for Wayne Enterprises, who at the moment was the leading technology systems practically everywhere in the U.S., as well as several key locations in Europe and Asia, save for Metropolis and Star City.

But there was a good side, and it was the side Bruce was sure Oliver Queen was seeing. Even though Lex Luthor was M.I.A., he left Tess Mercer in charge for a reason. Bruce did trust the fellow billionaire, even though he was a real airhead from past experiences during school days, more than Lex and Tess, but even if it would be easier to disable a corrupt giant by infiltration, Bruce did not want thousands of his employees to lose their jobs and worsen Gotham's still existing depression. If he could help it, he wasn't going to be the cause of another Joe Chill, let alone hundreds.

Glancing back to his employee and friend, Bruce gave the elder man a sly smile. "Well if Oliver Queen can swoon Tess Mercer enough to make her practically giftwrap LuthorCorp for him, then perhaps Bruce Wayne can swoon her out of the idea."

* * *

The last board member, and as a younger woman the most commanding of them all, strode into the room, straight past the two portraits of the Luthors that hung neatly on the wall, to stand in front of her chair. "Mercer's taking too many risks."

"Lex took a gamble on her and it's paying off," an elder board member refuted. "Look at the success she's had at the Daily Planet."

"Lex didn't know she was funneling all of LuthorCorp's holdings into one highly experimental bioweapon. And now she's lost the prototype." The woman sat as she continued, "I move for a vote of no confidence."

"Yeah," said another male board member around the woman's age. "I second the motion."

"All those in favor of making a change?"

As hands began to rise, the doors to the large room swung open to reveal Oliver Queen, CEO of one of LuthorCorp's competitors, Queen Industries. "Aye. That is that I agree it's time for a change but not quite how you mean it."

The woman looked surprised as the young billionaire now stood across the table from her. "Oliver Queen, what are you doing in enemy camp?"

"I'm actually the one who called this meeting," he replied smoothly and with a small hint of amusement in his tone as he glanced around the room. "Tess sends her regrets, but she's on her way to Dubai overseeing some of our international interests."

"What do you mean '_our_'?"

"With Tess's cooperation, I purchased controlling interests in LuthorCorp."

The board members glanced around at each other in disbelief as disapproving muttering filled the room.

The woman was the first to openly refute. "That barracuda went behind our backs and helped you with a hostile takeover—"

"Nuhuh…" Oliver interrupted as he held up his finger. "You know, I really don't think that the LuthorCorp board should be lecturing me on ethics, ma'am." On one of the few tables around the room, a Newton's Cradle started to operate, the outermost metal balls swinging back and forth in quiet harmony. "After all, you've been using the world as your own personal playground for far too long."

The woman stood, furious. "The world is much better off because of the Luthors—" While Oliver tried to stay focused on her, his attention was suddenly drawn to the strange anomaly of the Newton's Cradle that had been idle only moments before as his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And no pampered playboy is going to destroy their legacy." Something wasn't right. The small metal balls were moving faster until at last they both hit the remaining stack at the same time, which suddenly caused the movement to stop.

Oliver's eyes widened. "Everybody down!"

The explosion ripped through the room just as Oliver ducked underneath the table.

* * *

Thanks to owning his own private jet, Bruce Wayne landed in Metropolis Airport before the sun set. While meeting with Tess Mercer would have to wait until morning, it was a good enough time as any to take a look around the unfamiliar city.

"Perhaps you should try to enjoy yourself tonight, Master Wayne," Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's faithful butler, suggested from the driver's seat of the rental luxury car they now rode in through sparkling downtown Metropolis as the sky was already dark, leaving the city's lights left to illuminate the skyscrapers. "Without the weight of Gotham's worries to rest upon your shoulders, you might find you can still have a good time."

Bruce scoffed as his attention remained on the glistening lights outside of his window. But the nearly silent sound of the background radio caught his attention. "…_explosion…LuthorCorp…killed…Queen…injured…_"

"Alfred, can you turn that up?"

"Yes sir," was his reply and instantly the news anchor's voice filled the car.

"_Officials are still unsure as to who is behind the explosion, but many are wondering why Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Industries was in the room and managed to escape alive while it is reported that all of LuthorCorp's board of directors did not survive the blast._"

A bomb had wiped out LuthorCorp's controlling board members? That was _just _what Bruce needed right now. But the reason for Oliver Queen's presence must have been to announce the merger. But then where was Tess Mercer? Her name wasn't added into the broadcast, and had she been injured or killed, it undoubtedly would have been, leaving LuthorCorp leaderless, save for Oliver Queen, of course.

But Oliver Queen plant a bomb, like many were suggesting? Ollie was a lot of things, but suicidal and killer he was not. While Bruce hadn't seen Star City's favorite billionaire since he was just a bully in Excelsior Academy, he had done his research on not only Gotham's residents when he returned from Asia, but on the wealthy and powerful who might prove a criminal threat down the road. Lex Luthor was still in that category after his brief investigation, but once Bruce stumbled across Oliver Queen's ventures both in and out of character for the airhead playboy, he was cleared of most suspicions; the Daily Planet's reports of the mysterious Green Arrow aided in that (although this new Red and Blue Blur was still a mystery to Bruce, one that he wasn't jumping to solve so long as the superhuman blur stayed in Metropolis and out of Gotham). Oliver's survival must have been pure luck. Or skill.

Well, the growing suspicions that were beginning to nag at Bruce insides were enough cause to want to investigate this. "Alfred, head for the hospital."

* * *

"Please tell me that the bed was already wobbly," a giggling Lana Lang said as she glanced to the now broken bed she and Clark Kent laid on top of on the second floor of the small farmhouse on the Kent farm in Smallville, Kansas.

"Lana, it's made of solid oak," Clark replied with a grin of his own.

Embarrassed, she covered her head with the sheet, and Clark followed suit to join her under the covers. The two grinned at each other.

"What do you say we find out how strong the floor is?

She laughed. "Where do you get all the energy?"

Clark just smiled before he changed the subject. "How would you like to see another sunset? We could start our night all over again." Lana's grin grew. "Head west, find a sandy beach."

"I love you being so romantic, Clark. But there is something that I would love even more than a trip to the tropics."

"Just ask and it's yours."

Using her new super speed that the biotech suit she now wore, she was out of bed and standing next to it, fully clothed, within a second. "I want to help you when you're out patrolling Metropolis."

Clark's grin faded. He loved Lana, and even though she was seemingly invincible now, he still didn't like the thought of putting her into any sort of harm's way. "Lana, I'm not so sure—"

"Clark," she interrupted as she sat on the bed next to him. When I stopped that bullet and saved Dr. Groll's life, it was the most amazing feeling I have ever had. I got to use my new powers the way I always planned to."

"Lana, even with your strength and speed, it's still dangerous out there."

She just smiled. "You've protected me for years. But this is who I am now. It's the life I want. And I want to share it with you."

After an understanding smile appeared on Clark's face, he used his own super speed to be standing dressed behind Lana as she stood to face him. "All I've ever wanted was someone to share my life with. To work with me, side by side, just like my mom and dad did. With my abilities I never thought that—"

"Clark, stop," Lana whispered, the pair only inches away from each other now. "I'm right here."

They both beamed lovingly at each other as Clark leaned in to kiss her.

A knocking interrupted them, and as the pair headed downstairs, Chloe Sullivan's voice sounded from the kitchen where she had just entered. "Clark? Lana? Hey, there was some sort of explosion at LuthorCorp. The news was saying it was a bomb."

"Oh my god," Lana muttered.

"Was anyone hurt?" Clark questioned.

"Apparently everyone on the board of directors was killed. Oliver was there—he's in the hospital."

They all glanced to each other with worried expressions.

* * *

A bruised and battered Oliver Queen awoke to the sound of an obnoxious beeping noise and to the sight of a small tube full of dripping liquid dangling next to his bed. He was in a hospital. As soon as he moved, he realized that he was there for good reason. With a groan and a wince, he stopped trying to move his body to sit up and instead glanced around the room.

A gust of wind suddenly blew the papers making up his charts backwards on their clipboard, announcing the arrival of Clark Kent and Lana Lang.

Well since the nearly invincible Superman and his girlfriend were here, he wasn't going to show anymore weakness than was already displayed. "If it isn't Metropolis's newest power couple," Ollie said with the small hint of a groan as he sat up in his hospital bed.

"How you doing Oliver?" Lana questioned first.

"I'm alright. Nothing a dry martini can't cure." He looked to Clark an expression that most would not expect to see on playboy Oliver Queen. "Were there any survivors?"

Clark shook his head. "No, you were the only one." Ollie looked down. If only he had noticed the bomb sooner, recognized it quicker, all those people would still be alive. "They said the table protected you from the blast. Oliver, do you have any idea who did this?"

After a short pause, the boy billionaire shook his head as he lied through his teeth. "Angry shareholder, maybe? I just bought a controlling stake in LuthorCorp." Lana and Clark glanced at each other. "I was meeting with the board to announce it."

"If you're trying to erase the Luthor from LuthorCorp, then there's one obvious choice for who was behind this attack," Lana stated plainly, earning an extra glance from Clark before he nodded in agreement, "Lex."

Oliver wasn't enthused about how fast they caught onto that little bit of information. "You know, if Lex was going to go after anyone, Lana, I would assume it would be you. You were the one that really got under his skin…or should I say into it. That biotech you commandeered, that was his lifeline, his last chance at recovery. That probably meant more to him than his entire company."

Lana looked at Ollie in disbelief while Clark continued, "Do you remember anything before the blast? Something that could help us figure out if Lex was behind this?"

Glancing between the two people that stood on either side of his bed, Ollie shook his head as he once more lied through his teeth. "No. No, I didn't see anything." This earned a distrustful look from Lana; she could tell he was hiding something. Hesitation and vague answers were not things that Oliver Queen answered with often.

Clark glanced to Lana before looking back to Ollie. "Don't worry, Oliver. I promise we're going to find out who did this."

Ollie nodded slightly as he glanced to Lana, strongly disliking the look she was still giving him, before looking back to Clark.

* * *

Bruce Wayne had been Batman for just over a year and what little experience he had taught him that it was sometimes best to play a little 'undercover'. After all, his undercover techniques in Gotham had successfully retrieved enough information on Harvey Dent to write a five hundred page autobiography. While it would not be entirely unexpected for Bruce Wayne to be in Metropolis at all, let alone when Queen Industries and LuthorCorp were attempting to merge, it would still be best to keep the news of his arrival in the glistening city as low as possible, especially since Oliver would have to prove himself in person instead of through news reports and database files. No one loved Lex, which meant everyone was a suspect; trusting anyone was not an option.

When an extremely underdressed Bruce Wayne arrived at the hospital, Oliver was still unconscious, leaving the other boy billionaire with too much time on his hands to insert a tiny microphone on the wall behind the door. Slipping back out of the room while keeping his baseball cap low over his face, he headed towards the end of the hall where a row of five or six chairs sat in place for a temporary waiting area-of-sorts. Taking a seat in the farthest one from Ollie's room, and the one right against the wall, Bruce Wayne, or now known as Thomas Quigley who was visiting his ill aunt in room 402 to anyone who asked, would wait.

But he didn't have to wait long. Within a minute of him sitting down into his currently slouched position, voices sounded in his ear through the small earpiece, which raised even further suspicion. Now, obviously, Oliver was awake, as he had spoken first, but he hadn't seen anyone enter the room between then and now, and now there were two other voices than Ollie's _oh-so-charming_ one, one male and one female.

He didn't learn much from the brief conversation, but what he did might prove useful later. The woman's name was Lana and the man's was still unknown, though the righteous tone in his voice made Bruce slightly suspicious. No one was entirely for truth and justice, and Oliver wasn't known to have that loyal of friends; this character must have some other motive, but that would have to wait for later. And according to them, Lex was still alive, just as he had originally guessed. But he hadn't guessed that Lex would be as active as he apparently was. The oldest boy billionaire of the trio indirectly killing people? It wasn't entirely unlikely, but it was unexpected.

But the last piece of information intrigued Bruce the most. Oliver had mentioned a biosuit that was meant for Lex, but now this Lana was wearing it. From what he was quickly learning about Lex Luthor, that meant that that suit wasn't exactly normal, and it also might explain how she got into the room; but not how the other man did.

So far, he had more questions than answers. Hopefully sitting in here and listening in on Oliver's conversations would be better than trying to navigate Metropolis nearly blind and unaided, and without any leads.

* * *

As soon as the hardly recognizable board room was cleared of forensic scientists, Clark Kent and Lana Lang seemingly suddenly appeared standing in the middle of it. While pieces of the wall were strewn about them, pillars of cement interrupted the floor space while the few still working lights hung loose from their places in the ceiling as they flickered with barely surviving life.

"Oliver's luck to be alive," Clark said, duly noting the catastrophic destruction around them.

Lana moved through the debris towards one side of the room that was blacker than the rest of the walls. "It looks like bomb went off over here."

Clark began to move in a different direction, observing whatever he could. "There's pieces of the walls everywhere—" Suddenly he stopped with a gasp as a familiar pain ran through his body. Kryptonite.

She instantly noticed. "Clark, are you okay?" she unnecessarily questioned as she crossed the distance between them.

He took a few steps back as he stood up straight again, "It's kryptonite."

Glancing at what he was indicating, Lana easily tore open the metal box attached to the wall to reveal lots of electrical wires and a tiny, broken sphere with a small piece of kryptonite in it. Withdrawing the tiny object, she examined it. "It looks like this silver shard was a part of the bomb. But why would they use meteor rock?"

"It's not the first time kryptonite's been used to make a bomb more powerful."

With narrowed eyes, Lana carefully moved her fingers to pick up the kryptonite, but as soon as her finger touched the glowing green rock, it vanished in a spark. "Woah, what was that?"

"Whatever it was Lana, I don't feel the kryptonite anymore."

"Maybe it was treated with something that lost its charge when I moved the chip," she replied as she moved to hand the shard to him.

"Queen Industries," Clark said aloud when he recognized the tiny label on the chip.

"Clark, I think that Oliver knows more than he's saying."

"Lana, it's a big company, they make thousands of chips a year. Why would you think that Oliver would be responsible?"

"I don't, but doesn't it seem like he's covering something?"

"Why would he hide anything from me?"

"He's done it before, Clark. When I tracked Lex to Cuba, Oliver showed up. He was there to kill Lex."

Clark looked at Lana in disbelief. Oliver want to kill someone? It was uncharacteristic, even if Lex's father had killed his parents and even if the world was better off without him. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I thought that I talked him down, but obviously he still has his own agenda." Clark frowned slightly as he strode to the other side of the dismantled room. "I think you should show him the chip and give him a chance to explain."

"No, we can't trust him anymore. He's so obsessed with killing Lex that he went behind my back, I don't want to pull him in any deeper. Whatever Oliver is hiding we'll figure it out on our own."

* * *

"Yes, the game has begun," the 'Toymaker' stated aloud as he set down his completed Daily Planet model in the middle of a miniature Metropolis. He glanced to the model LuthorCorp tower next door to the tiny Planet as his smile slightly faded. Even though things had gone perfectly in the model, leaving the top floor of the tiny building wrecked, things didn't go well in real life. "Although even the finest plan can't guarantee a flawless execution." Glancing to the still immobile doll propped up on a chair, he headed towards it before sitting in a chair across from it. "Apparently, Ms. Mercer wasn't in the room." His eyes shifted around the room, half in fear, half in angry disappointment, before he continued to the doll. "And Oliver Queen survived. "But don't you worry…"

_"…I'll be sure to tie up any lose ends, Mr. Luthor,"_ Winslow's image finished as his face was displayed on a large monitor in front of a man seated in a chair, a young, bald man with several tubes and pipes leading from his body to the monitors and machines that were around him. Lex Luthor nodded slightly in approval. _"Meanwhile, we've already begun round two."_

As Winslow moved away from the doll and back to his model of Metropolis, he picked up a small remote with a grin. "Time for our next move." As soon as he hit the button with his gloved thumb, the Daily Planet model erupted into flames, casting foreboding reflections on his glasses as the 'Toymaker' laughed.

* * *

"I thought you were supposed to enjoy the night, sir, not spend all of it cooped up in your hotel room on a computer," Alfred Pennyworth indistinctly complained as he entered the living room-of-sorts of the presidential suite of Metropolis's Four Seasons.

Bruce Wayne, who still wasn't entirely out of 'costume' from his surveillance at the hospital, had opted to sit cross-legged on the floor instead of one of the several pieces of comfortable furniture around him, which didn't surprise Alfred in the slightest as it had become a habit for his employer ever since he returned from his travels in Asia nearly two years before, with a laptop perched on his lap and his fingers furiously typing away. "Something came up," he muttered without stopping his work.

"Something as in the LuthorCorp bombing?"

"Yes. Lex Luthor is still alive and his whereabouts need to be known before he kills anyone else."

Alfred's brows rose in surprise. The last he heard of Lex Luthor was that the young billionaire was missing and dead. Although, many had said the same of young Bruce Wayne, but here he sat, more alive and well than ever…well, mostly. "And how to you propose to do this? Your hacking skills are adequate enough for the job, yes, but Bruce Wayne playing detective in Metropolis probably isn't the best way to keep a respectively low profile."

Bruce paused in his typing to glance to his oldest friend. "And that's why I need you to fly back to Gotham tonight and get my things."

"But, sir—"

"I know the consequences, Alfred. But my resolve is no different here than in Gotham. I won't allow murder if I can prevent it."

* * *

The next morning, Oliver Queen smirked at the pretty nurse standing next to his bed, looking over his charts. "Hm," she began as she glanced to the handsome billionaire with a nice smile of her own. "Your heart rate is a little higher than normal, Mr. Queen."

His eyebrows rose in amused interest as he leaned forward to glance at the machine next to his bedside that was monitoring all that important stuff. "Really? I'm sure the view has that effect on all of your patients."

She giggled as she put away her pen and set the charts back down. "Well, with the pain meds you're on, I'm afraid—" she reached over to pull open the blinds to reveal one of the many uneventful hallways of Metropolis General Hospital, "—this is the only view you're getting tonight. Rest." And with that final word, she disappeared out of the door, leaving Chloe Sullivan with a smug smile on her face as she shook her head, standing next to the open door.

"It looks like someone's making a speedy recovery."

"Yeah, not quick enough, trust me," Ollie replied as he sat up further in his bed.

"Well I'm guessing you didn't get me over here to spoon you chicken soup."

"No, uh, listen, I need you to pull an address off of Queen Industries database. It's an engineer that I fired six years ago. His name is Winslow Schott."

"And you think this ex-employee is behind the bomb?"

"I hired him right out of MIT; he developed explosives, anything from blowing out tunnels to breaking up kidney stones."

"That's pretty high praise for someone you handed a pink slip to," Chloe replied as she now stood leaning against the window next to Oliver's bed. "What happened?"

"High pressure job…he snapped. Started bringing toys to work. Whatever, right? Then he started hiding explosives inside the toys. And that's when I realized Winslow was thinking a little bit too far outside the box."

"Hm…" Chloe quietly replied as she looked down. But suddenly her eyes narrowed as she looked back to the man in bed. "Why are you telling me this when you have your very own personal bomb squad in Clark and Lana? Look," she began as she reached for her phone, "give me ten minutes with one of your satellites and I'll get them to go and get him."

"No, Chloe, wait, we can't tell Clark." She paused in her typing on her phone and glanced up to meet Ollie's eyes. He hesitated before continuing, "Winslow could've attacked me anytime in the past six years. He chose the night I took over LuthorCorp to do it. The Toyboy may have pulled the pin, but…but I think he's working for Lex."

"So you're not actually interested in tracking this Winslow guy down; you just want him to lead you to Lex." Oliver shifted uncomfortably. "And you want Clark to stay out of your way."

"Chloe you know Clark would never agree to what must be done to get rid of Lex forever."

She looked at him in disbelief, "You're talking about killing him—"

"I'm talking about ending his reign of terror that has been consuming us all lately."

Chloe just shook her head, not liking the sudden change in Oliver nor liking the idea of lying to Clark about killing Lex. "No, I can't lie to Clark," she replied as she turned for the door.

"You want to tell him the truth or you want to protect him?" Chloe hesitated as she glanced back to Ollie. Both of them knew that they both would do anything for Clark. "Lex tried to kill me. You know he's coming after Clark next. Chloe, he knows his secret. Could you honestly live with yourself if you let something happen to Clark?"

She tried to speak, to argue, to refute, to anything…but nothing came out. Instead she just obediently left, excuseless to keep herself from doing this, and as she strode down the hospital hall, she failed to notice the man lounging in one of the few chairs in the hall dressed in plain clothes and with a baseball cap hiding most of his face as if he was sleeping as well as the tiny earpiece he had in his ear.

* * *

Only twenty minutes later, Chloe Sullivan was seated onboard Oliver Queen's private jet, looking at the file of Winslow Schott as it downloaded onto her phone. But just as the download finished, leaving Winslow's face enlarged on the tiny device's screen, Clark Kent startled her. "Chloe." Super speed. "What are you doing here?"

A stunned Chloe dug for some sort of excuse that could come off naturally. One would think that she would be an expert by now in the art of making excuses with all the secrets she seems to keep all the time. After a short hesitation, she flashed a small smile. "You know Oliver. Even the blast of a bomb won't rattle his work ethic. He asked me to come in and pull some of the files from the LuthorCorp deal."

Clark nodded slightly, but he clearly wasn't buying it. "That's funny. Because I would think that Queen Industries could free up at least one employee to run his errands for him."

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly a Briggs security truck, but Oliver knows that he can trust me."

"I thought I could, too." Chloe's face soured. Low blow. But as Clark began to close the distance between them, she quickly closed out of Winslow's file while keeping her eyes locked on Clark's. "You're chasing down a lead on the bombing for him, aren't you?"

She once more hesitated, hating the fact that she was lying to Clark, of all people, keeping something from him. But it was for his own protection, and she was the secret keeper after all. Shaking her head, she stood to gather up her things. "Sorry Clark."

"Chloe, you don't understand. Lana told me about Oliver's vendetta against Lex. He knows that I would try to stop him, that's why he would lie, but I don't know why you would—"

"Because I don't want to lose you, Clark," Chloe replied as she spun around to face him. "Lex knows that the meteor rocks are poisonous to Kryptonians. He knows your weakness, he could kill you."

"That doesn't mean I'm supposed to kill him first, Chloe. No matter what Oliver may have said to you, Lex and I are not in a battle to the death—"

"Open your eyes, Clark! Lex declared war on you years ago. He's known your secrets for months—why have you not done anything yet?"

"I'm focused on the future. On using my abilities to help people. I don't want to live in the past."

"But that's exactly what you're doing. You think that Lex is still that same man that you saved on that bridge eight years ago? You're not recognizing the monster that he's become."

"So because that I'm not going to kill someone, I'm in denial? When you were taken over by Braniac you could have destroyed the world, Chloe. But I refused to kill you." Another low blow. Her eyes looked away from his as she internally debated. As much as she might be betraying Oliver, this was the right thing to do. Trusting Clark was always the right thing to do.

"Here," she said quietly as she handed him her phone, guilt of all kinds running through her. "It's Oliver's top suspect Winslow Schott. He used to work at STAR Labs. Oliver thinks he would lead us to Lex."

Clark smiled slightly, not exactly proud of what he had just done to get the information out of his best friend and the resulting emotions that were clear in her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

As he left, Chloe looked after him as she slowly shook her head. He always said he would be careful, but he always managed to get himself into dangerous situations, and with Lex, any errors might cause him to get killed. But now it was out of her hands. Let Clark go and get himself killed, let Oliver think that she was untrustworthy. She finished gathering up her things.

* * *

The elevator doors slid open to reveal a large many carrying a box and a batch of balloons that hid his face from view. As he strode up to the front desk, the present nurse, the same nurse who was in charge of Oliver, glanced up with a smile and the ridiculous amount of balloons. "Can I help you?"

Moving the balloons to the side, Winslow Schott smiled back, "I certainly hope so. Could you direct me to Oliver Queen's room? I have a delivery for him."

* * *

Lana Lang sat in the Kents' kitchen, her elbows propped on the kitchen table as her hands held up the familiar necklace in front of her. A small, lingering smile was present both before and after Clark Kent arrived via super speed. As he stormed through the kitchen door calling her name, she glanced up at him, waiting for him to find her with his eyes. And when he did, she looked back down to the necklace as she set it neatly on the table, causing Clark to stop with a small smile of his own. "You found your necklace."

"After all the pain it caused you, I'm surprised you still have it."

Slipping Chloe's phone into his pocket, he approached. "How could I throw away something that means so much?" Reaching to take the necklace from her hands, he put it around her neck. "I still remember seeing you wear this in high school. I couldn't get within five feet of you without falling over."

She smiled slightly at the memory as he pulled her hair free of the necklace's chain. "And even after your ship removed the kryptonite, there always seemed to be something standing in our way."

"Yeah…" Clark added before he moved to kneel next to her as her fingers idly played with the necklace now around her neck. "But not anymore. We're together now, Lana. I'm not going to let anyone take that away from us."

"Clark, I talked to Dr. Groll about what happened with the kryptonite. It wasn't the chip. It was me."

Misunderstanding, Clark slightly smiled in slight amazement. "So besides strength and speed, you can also destroy kryptonite—"

"No," Lana refuted, her tone serious. "Dr. Groll says I absorbed it, but I'm worried, Clark." Finally he stopped smiling as his expression turned serious as well. "If Lex built this as a weapon, what if you were the target?"

Clark reached for her hand. "But Lex isn't wearing it Lana, you are. We're going to figure this out, but we need to stay focused on tracking down this bomber before it causes anymore damage."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yeah," Clark replied as he reached for Chloe's phone to hand to Lana. "You were right. Oliver was hiding something. He thinks the bomber was someone who used to work for him. I went to that address listed there, but he doesn't live there anymore."

Lana's eyes narrowed as she read through the file. "According to this, Mr. Schott is a pretty prolific inventor. He fought a lot of patents for STAR Labs." She glanced to Clark. "A guy like this wouldn't just stop registering his research just because Oliver let him go."

"So maybe the patent office has a current address for him."

Standing, Lana continued, "If this guy's working for Lex, then we're dealing with a lot more than just some Toymaker. If Lex put things in motion, he's planned three moves ahead. And now that he has nothing to lose, he's more dangerous than ever."

* * *

A dozing Oliver Queen moved to readjust his uncomfortable position in the uncomfortable hospital bed when his hand caught at his side. Instantly his brown eyes opened as he glanced to his hand to find it handcuffed to the bed. And so was the other one. What the? He tugged hard at them as panic flooded through him before he even bothered to look to the foot of his bed where Winslow Schott was standing, tinkering with the toy monkey he had in his hands. "What the hell?"

"How does it feel to not be in control for once?" Winslow questioned as he readjusted his glasses to continue working, not bothering to look at the struggling Queen.

"Untie me right now."

"That wouldn't be very much fun."

Oliver's eyes narrowed in realization as Winslow pulled back his jacket to reveal a pocket full of tools, in which he stashed the one he was previously using. Glancing around the room, he noticed the balloons as an idea formed. "Oh, I get it, I get it," he said as he nodded in apparent realization. "But the, uh, children's floor is two floors up, you know."

Winslow stopped in his last minute work, feeling insulted. "Excuse me?"

"The balloons, the monkey, the ridiculous costume you're wearing, you're obviously a clown, right? Aren't you a clown?" Ollie questioned with a grin.

The man standing fumed with anger as he turned to look at his previous employer. "I am Winslow Schott." Oliver's eyes narrowed in slight concentration as he pretended not to remember the name. "You called me one of STAR Labs greatest minds," he continued as he pointed a finger at the boy billionaire, "and then you fired me."

Oliver slowly nodded his head as if his memory finally caught up to him, "Winslow…Of course, yeah. I remember you now. Well it's good to see you're still playing with toys." He laughed as he shook his head. "Come on, man. How much for the ape?"

Winslow couldn't believe how simple minded Oliver Queen was. Moving to the side of the bed, he brought his face close to the billionaire's to emphasize his point. "I don't need your money anymore, Mr. Queen. I found someone new to work with. Someone who appreciates my genius." Winslow stood up straight as he spread his arms out, a large smile spreading on his large face, not realizing that Oliver had just swiped one of his tools from his jacket while he was leaning in close. "None other than Lex Luthor himself."

Oliver nodded slightly, "Well that's impressive. I thought he was dead."

The smile vanished from the Toymaker's face. "_You_ are the one who's supposed to be dead." His anger suddenly exploded as he pointed towards the wall, "You should have died in that explosion just like everyone else!"

"You seem like you're getting angry, Winslow. Maybe you should take your toys and go home," Oliver stated firmly and dangerously, slightly throwing the Toymaker.

But he recovered quickly and his brows rose. "Actually…" he said as he moved back to the foot of the bed to hold up the toy monkey, giving Oliver a chance to work on unlocking one of the cuffs. "I made a toy just for you." As Winslow looked down at the toy that he held against his chest with slight glee, Oliver freed one of his hands. "After this little fellah clanks his symbols together fifty-three times…" His eyebrows suddenly rose as a grin spread across his large face and he whispered, "It'll be the last sound you ever hear."

Oliver, keeping up with the act to keep Winslow talking instead of blowing things up, continued, "Fifty-three, huh? Seems a little arbitrary, doesn't it?"

"I filed fifty-three patents working for you," he replied as he set the monkey back on the table at the foot of the bed. "Queen Industries made millions and I got nothing." Oliver's eyes narrowed as his jaw clenched. Time to act fast. Winslow looked back to the toy and activated it, causing the little symbols to clang together at a faster speed than Oliver wanted. Moving to lean over Oliver again, Winslow continued, "I bet you wish that you had appreciated my artistry just a little bit more now, don't you?"

Oliver suddenly wrapped his free arm around Winslow's neck and pulled him across the bed to face the other handcuff. Keeping him in a headlock, Oliver's eyes remained on the monkey as he continued to count the symbol claps. "Unlock the other cuff." When Winslow hesitated, Ollie's grip tightened. "Come on! Twenty-eight and counting; Bobo's not going to slow down anytime soon." Quickly Winslow unlocked the cuff and as soon as his hand was free, Oliver used it to grab Winslow's fingers as he freed his other arm from the headlock and threw the tool he still had in his hand at the toy monkey, which it its target, knocked the toy from the table, and disabled the bomb for now. Standing from the bed, Ollie forced the Toymaker to the ground as he held his fingers in a position that was beyond uncomfortable as Winslow whimpered in pain. "I swear I will break everyone of your artistic little fingers, now tell me…where can I find Lex?"

* * *

Something wasn't right. Bruce Wayne glanced down the hospital hall from underneath the battered baseball cap that hid most of his face from view for the fifth time in the past two minutes. Well, of course something wasn't right. Winslow Schott was paying Oliver a visit. But Bruce was positive that Ollie was the Green Arrow, meaning that some Toymaker was a walk in the park for him. It was like Sal Maroni against Batman. But it shouldn't take _this_ long.

Bruce had spent the entire night doing as much research he could without the aid of his large and private server located beneath Wayne Manor, and without any physical evidence. But the repeated daytime primary research, which occurred after Alfred had returned from Gotham and after Bruce had stashed away his nocturnal belongings, that he had collected proved to be much more useful than yesterday's sole conversation he overheard.

The other man's name must be Clark and though Bruce was still slightly suspicious, the new woman, a cute little blonde named Chloe who carried herself like she knew everything (with the worse half of everything that seemed to also show its weight on her shoulders), and Oliver both thought highly enough of the boy scout to want to protect him from Lex Luthor's apparent 'reign of terror/killing spree'. But what about this secret the woman had mentioned, a secret that apparently both of them and Lex knew about this Clark? It would have to wait.

Glance number six was the key glance. Three doors down from where Bruce lazily sat, only Oliver Queen emerged from the room fully dressed in clothes that someone must have brought him at some point in time, and a toy monkey in his hand; the bomb they both were referencing to. Had he really taken that long to detain Winslow Schott? The brief time that the room had been silent through the earpiece that Bruce had in his ear was after Oliver got the information out of Schott. But this Green Arrow had a lot of work to do, especially since he strode straight past Bruce without a second glance.

It wasn't hard to dig up the story about Ollie's parents, along with the names of the pilots of the plane that crashed and their backgrounds: both previous LuthorCorp employees. So Bruce knew all too well what was going through Oliver's mind if he, too, knew the story. And by the looks of it, he did.

Standing from his chair, Bruce took a different route out of the hospital from Oliver. Since both billionaires knew where Lex Luthor was, Bruce had to get to him first before Oliver did something really stupid.

Good old fashioned eavesdropping sometimes was all that was needed.

* * *

Lana Lang and Clark Kent easily unlocked the door to Winslow's home and they both strode into the room, amazed at what they saw. Toys were everywhere, covering as much space as possible on the many shelves that filled the room. "This was the last address the patent office had for him," Clark stated as they wandered through the room. "Chloe mentioned this Winslow guy had a thing for toys."

"I'm guessing he still lives here," Lana replied before something caught her attention. A doll that was propped up on a chair turned its head towards her. Narrowing her eyes, she moved to pick it up and examine it. "Clark," she said as she turned to face him. "There's a wireless camera inside this doll."

Clark, who had turned away from examining the blueprints on the wall, closed the distance between them. "Someone's watching us."

"And I can guess who it is," she replied as she looked at the doll. "Lex likes to keep an eye on the people that work for him." Lana moved to dump the doll in a trashcan, headfirst, before she reached to examine one of the drives on the table above it.

Clark, however, moved to pull off a sheet that covered one of the tables to reveal a mini Metropolis. "Lana, look at this." As she approached the table, he continued. "It's Metropolis."

"Winslow must have played out the bombing here before the attack," Lana observed as she spotted the LuthorCorp building.

"If that's the case, then the Daily Planet is Lex's next target."

* * *

Oliver's nurse strode into his room carrying a tray with his pain killers and a glass of water on top of it as she politely knocked on the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Queen? It's time for your medicine." Slightly confused at the strange behavior, she set down the tray as she approached the bed that she thought Oliver Queen was still in with the sheet over his head. But as she pulled back the blanket, she gasped as she saw the balloon man from earlier in the bed instead, his eyes wide behind his glasses and tape over his mouth. "Oh my god!" She pulled the tape off his mouth. "Where's Mr. Queen?"

"I just delivered a balloon-a-gram and the guy attacked me," Winslow Schott lied in a convincingly innocent tone.

The nurse bought it as she looked appalled before moving to unlock the handcuffs. "Here, let me help you."

"Thank you. Thank you, so much."

"_You_," Chloe Sullivan said as she entered the room to find the nurse quickly unlocked the handcuff keeping Winslow attached to the bed. She was returning from her data retrieval to give the information to Oliver, but obviously something else came up. "You're Winslow Schott. No, don't untie him!"

But before the nurse could react, Winslow's free hand lifted as his thumb pressed a small remote, causing the balloons in the room to explode as sleeping gas filled the space. Both women gasped while the Toymaker reached for a rebreather, and once the females fell to the floor, Winslow slipped out of the room. "I win."

* * *

"I just picked up Chloe from the hospital. She's okay, but this Toyman guy got away." Clark Kent, who was on the phone, was standing in the Isis Foundation with Chloe Sullivan only a few feet away, trying to track the other end of the wireless camera signal that was in the now dismantled doll through her laptop. "Keep looking Lana."

As Clark hung up the phone and approached Chloe, she glanced up at him. "Call me crazy, Clark, but isn't there a bomb you should be finding?"

"Tracing that cameras signal may be the only way to find Lex, and Lana's already searching for the bomb at the Daily Planet. Have you had any luck?"

"The feed to the camera's been cut, but it was definitely broadcasting to a single receiver."

"You found Lex."

"Well, I managed to sneak past the latest gaggle of ghost routers and ping the original IP address that Winslow was sending to."

"Where is he?"

"Where sort of depends on when, Clark. Lex has been on the move this whole time," Chloe replied as she nodded her head towards the room full of computer monitors directly in front of her, all of which displayed a map of Metropolis with a red dot that was continuously moving.

"I thought Lex was immobilized," Clark replied as he moved to take a closer look at the screens.

"Lex may be immobilized, but his IP address is still leaping tall wireless towers in a single bound. Now," she continued as she stood to approach Clark with a phone in her hand. "I programmed the signal into one of Oliver's satellites and synched it to my PDA." After Clark's expression didn't change as he examined the small device, Chloe clarified, "I made you a Lex tracker. Now Oliver's satellite is about to pass out of range. You only have ten minutes before the signal is gone and Lex disappears again.

* * *

"Lana?" Clark Kent called out above the obnoxious fire alarm in the basement of the Daily Planet and instantly Lana Lang was at his side.

"Clark I've searched every room and I can't find the bomb anywhere."

"You said we're a team," Clark replied with a small smile. She had searched, now it was his turn. Focusing only on sound, he used his super hearing to pin point the noise of a ticking bomb. A ticking bomb that was located high above them. Glancing to Lana, he said, "It's on the roof."

In an instant the pair were on the Daily Planet roof facing a large bomb composed of two liquid chambers. But as Clark tried to walk towards it, he instantly grew weak and returned to stand next to Lana.

"With that much kryptonite, it could take out half the city."

_"Clark Kent and Lana Lang,"_ a voice suddenly sounded from the bomb itself, drawing the suspicious attention of both people standing on the rooftop. It was then that they noticed a small camera in the middle of the bomb, facing them.

_"Welcome to your destiny,"_ Lex Luthor said through both the breathing mask attached to his face and the microphone that transmitted to the Daily Planet rooftop as he watched the pair that had ruined his life. _"You've destroyed me in every way, so now I'm going to take away what matters most to you."_

"Lex," Lana quietly stated, announcing the fact that she knew it was Lex Luthor himself on the other end of that camera and microphone.

_"Do you know what people remember about the greatest star-crossed romances? Not how the lovers met, but the way their relationship tragically ended._" The pair glanced from each other to the bomb, their worried expressions clear on their faces. _"The skin Lana's wearing was designed to absorb enough meteor rock energy that you'll never be able to go near her again."_ Once more they glanced at each other as now they felt the pain that was sure to come.

"You're a coward, Lex," Clark said, his anger clear over the video screen. _"Come out, face us!"_

_"No, Clark. It's time for you to face your defining moment. You could walk away, sacrificing millions of innocent lives, or defuse the bomb, sacrificing your love…forever."_

Clark's jaw clenched as he wanted to face Lex in person, but Lana stepped in front of him with tears in her eyes. "Clark."

He glanced down at her, his anger subsiding for a brief moment, but when he glanced back to the bomb, it instantly returned as he made his decision. As much as he loved Lana, and now that they could finally be happy together, he couldn't not save innocent lives. He wasn't going to be responsible for their deaths and if he could save them, he would. "You have to."

Their eyes stayed locked as her hand raised to touch his cheek, and they kissed one final time, much to the growing anxiety of a watching Lex Luthor. Once their lips parted, Lana's hands dared to stray from Clark's face as she backed away from him. Instinctively, Clark's hand reached for hers, but only held it for a moment before she pulled it from his reach and continued her stride towards the kryptonite bomb, leaving Clark to stay in place and only watch. As Lana rounded the bomb to stand on the platform behind it, holding her hands above the two large containers full of kryptonite, Clark looked on painfully and hopelessly as Lex watched gleefully. And after a painful sigh from Lana, she placed her hands on the containers and instantly the kryptonite started to stream into her suit, the power of it lifting her into the air. Clark could only watch, no matter how much he wanted to help her, to stop the obvious pain she was going through. But every time he took a step closer, it hurt, so he stayed painfully still. Finally the kryptonite was gone and Lana dropped to the ground to land in a crouched position. Instinctively, Clark was concerned and took a few steps forward to aid her, but instantly he felt the pain of the kryptonite. But it couldn't compare to the painful look in Lana's teary eyes as she gazed at him.

It was that look that reminded him and instantly his anger flooded him. "Lex." And in an instant Clark was gone, leaving Lana on the rooftop as she regained her breath.

* * *

As Alfred Pennyworth sped down the road, Bruce Wayne quickly changed from common street attire to his armored attire with more difficulty than normal in the backseat of the large luxury car. It was now a matter of beating Oliver to Lex and even though it went against everything in him to save the corrupt and evil billionaire, he was not about to let Oliver kill anyone, even if it was Lex Luthor, for all three of their sakes.

Alfred slowed, his eyes wide and nervous. Before now, he had always aided his young charge in his dangerous nocturnal adventures, ones that he didn't quite approve of, from the opposite end of a radio frequency while he was safe and discrete in the caverns below Wayne Manor. But this…this was something else entirely and the fact that they were in Metropolis and not Gotham only heightened matters.

Once the car slowed to a stop nearly two blocks away from Lex's location, as according to this Winslow Schott, Batman slipped out of the car and into the shadows of Metropolis, and quite honestly, it didn't feel right. This wasn't Gotham, it wasn't _his_ city. But until the Green Arrow got his head straight and until this Red and Blue Blur actually decided to save _everyone_, Batman was going to have to do the job for them tonight. As Alfred sped off in the direction from which he came, the Dark Knight slipped through the shadows as only the fluttering of his cape could be heard. The block was abandoned, leaving the lone semi-truck to idly sit on the curb where Winslow said it would be.

Now here was the hard part as he knew that Oliver would show up any moment. Batman was a myth in Gotham, and he was just a scary story that people laughed at in Metropolis. No one could see him, not even Oliver. So this was going to be more difficult than originally anticipated.

That thought was enhanced when he unlocked the back trailer door to reveal Lex Luthor stuck in a chair with machines attached to him to keep him alive.

"Hey!"

The Bat whipped around to look at the angry, and then surprised face of the driver, or so Bruce assumed, instead of the surprised face, or rather just the surprised eyes, of Metropolis's famous billionaire. But once the driver actually got a good look at the Bat, he tried to run. Bad mistake. Two batarangs connected by a rope flew out to wrap around the man's legs, causing him to stumble to the ground only a few yards away. Turning back to the trailer officially caught Lex's recovered attention.

_"You!"_ Ah, so even the great Lex Luthor had heard of Batman. But before Lex could protest or manage to say anything else that Bruce could imagine him saying, Batman released a small sleeping gas pellet in the bald billionaire's face. Before Batman moved to remove all the tubes and wires from the machines rather than Lex and carry him into the warehouse the semi was parked in front of, he hit a small button on his belt, which sent a signal straight to Alfred. A few of the many services that the butler could provide would be needed.

* * *

The street was quiet as the truck that held the demon loomed in front of Oliver Queen. His jaw was tight, his resolve was set, and he was determined to do what was necessary to end this once and for all.

With his hand gripping the toy monkey firmly, he strode towards the truck. Crawling underneath the trailer, he secured the toy bomb between one of the gas pipes and the metal container keeping Lex Luthor hidden from the world before activating it just as Winslow had. Just as he crawled back out from underneath the truck, he heard the sudden _woosh_ of Clark's super speed in the quiet alleyway which cued that it was time to disappear.

* * *

Clark Kent's super speed brought him to stand in front of an idle truck, which according to the PDA in his hand was where Lex's IP address was. With his resolve set, he was determined to do this. "You'll never hurt anyone again."

But as soon as he took a step forward, Lana Lang was standing in front of him, which caused him to stumble backwards as the kryptonite seemed to radiate off of her. "I know how much it hurts right now, Clark. But if you go after Lex like this, you will kill him."

Clark's eyes narrowed as the rare and true anger revealed itself. "After what he's done to us, he needs to be stopped."

"I promise you I will help you to punish Lex. But if you kill him, you will lose so much more than just us being together." Clark just continued to stare. "Clark," Lana continued. "You'll lose yourself."

But just as Clark's anger was beginning to diminish, Lana's words beginning to take effect, the truck behind them exploded into flames. They both turned to look at it in utter shock as the both realized that they couldn't punish Lex, not now.

* * *

The fire from the explosion filled Oliver Queen's brown eyes as he stood only a block away, hidden by the shadows from the view of a very distracted Clark and Lana. And as he watched the flames, a smile didn't creep over his face and he didn't feel at all glad for what he had just done. But he had ridden the world of evil, hadn't he? A confused and unsatisfied Oliver Queen slipped further into the shadows as he began his long walk back to his penthouse.

* * *

The fire from the explosion filled all three men's eyes as they watched from the window of the dark warehouse only a few yards away from the exploding truck. Bruce Wayne was sure the glass in front of them would shatter, but it only groaned in protest to the sudden heat and remained in place, separating them from the flames.

Lex Luthor, who had been woken up due to the sound of the explosion, as the sleeping gas wasn't meant to last long, stared out the window as if it was some glamorous piece of art. Things had, indeed, turned out even better than expected.

Alfred Pennyworth, though startled by the explosion, easily ignored it as he attempted to continue his work of monitoring the older billionaire's vitals before he started to fail without the necessary machines to keep him alive, machines that were now nothing more than smoke and flames. But when he moved towards the man who was currently fixated on the window once more, his employer held out his armored arm to stop him. "He's awake," the Batman growled under his breath, and the butler obediently nodded.

It was now obvious that Oliver was no longer to be trusted any more than Lex was. Perhaps Metropolis did need his help as much as Gotham did right now.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan removed the newly printed black and white photograph from the printer to examine it. And as she did, she didn't know whether to rejoice or to feel ashamed. As she set down the satellite image of the now destroyed semi-truck that had previously held the infamous Lex Luthor, she glanced to the several monitors that were currently Metropolis General's video feed to try and get some sort of clue as to where Winslow might have gone after he left.

But something else caught her eye, and it wasn't Winslow Schott.

Narrowing her green eyes as she slowly approached the room of monitors, she watched as Oliver left his hospital room with something in his hand. Clicking the pause button, her eyes narrowed further as her dreading suspicions rose, and she zoomed in on the object. The toy monkey, the same toy monkey the police found remains of at the crime scene.

"Lex deserved to die, Chloe," a watching Oliver Queen suddenly said, startling the female blonde and causing her to spin around to face the boy billionaire.

"You certainly made sure he got what he deserved," she replied with a glance back to the monitors with the still zoomed-in picture of the bomb monkey. "They identified the remains as Lex's."

This news Oliver already knew, but there was another opinion that he preferred above the police's. "And what does Clark think?"

"That Winslow turned on Lex. Pieces of a toy bomb were found in the wreckage."

He still didn't quite know if he was pleased with this answer or not. Part of him was still screaming at himself, saying it was all wrong. In attempts to prevent his conscious from giving himself away to Chloe, he scooped up the day's Daily Planet to read the headline: Toy Bomber Still at Large. "Yeah, well that makes sense," he continued, trying to reason both with himself and Chloe at the same time. "Wouldn't be like Winslow to play a game he can't win."

She just stared at him in disbelief. "Are you seriously just going to let another man take the blame for something you did?"

Dropping the paper, he turned to face her as she closed the space between them. "Chloe, Winslow's already a killer. He blew up all those people at LuthorCorp, he was ready to take down the Daily Planet. One more death's not going to make a difference."

"Are you listening to yourself? Oliver, you've really crossed a line here—"

"Lex is dead. The world is safer because of it, Clark is safe again."

"This is murder."

"This is justice. Although Clark might not be able to accept that, you know what I did was right." She still couldn't believe it and he couldn't take her accusing look anymore, so he strode past her towards the room full of monitors. "Please don't stand there and look so innocent." Turning back around to face his friend, he decided to turn the tables to cover his back in case she gave into Clark's baby blue eyes and unbelievable persistence again. "You know, I did a little video viewing of my own. It seems a certain meteor freak named Sebastian Kane died at the hospital right after he was visited by somebody who looked an awful lot like you."

She couldn't believe it. What had happened to the Oliver Queen she knew? "That was Braniac, not me."

"Was it? Because it seemed like a pretty natural instinct to protect Clark. Now that Lex is gone, you can't tell me you're not relieved.

She looked away from him for a moment before glancing back to his intimidating brown eyes. "Every fiber of my conscious wants to say that that's not true, but—"

"Then you can't tell Clark what I did. Lex just ripped the man's heart out, Chloe. He's going to need his friends around him right now more than ever."

* * *

Clark Kent strode towards the now abandoned wreckage of what was now left of Lex's last location. His mind raced, as he looked over the scene. Now that his head was clear, now that it wasn't so controlled by rage, he could see that he really didn't want to see Lex dead. Sure, he hated him for all the things that he had done, but there was some good in him somewhere, he knew that. No one deserved death, not even Lex.

But now it was too late. Lex Luthor was dead.

Scooping up some of the ashes into his hand, he tried to handle the shock of everything, of Lex's death, of losing Lana for the last time, everything. With one deep exhale, he released the ashes as the breeze spread them back along the truck remains. Taking one last long glance at the chair that Lex must have sat in for who knows how long, a chair that now was only flimsy and burnt metal in the middle of the rest of the heap, he turned and walked away.

* * *

The portrait that had previously hung alongside the other Luthor now hung slanted along the wall, its glass shattered and half of the picture covered in black soot from the bomb. Lex Luthor's portrait, or anything else for that matter, had yet to be restored from the bombing that surprisingly happened only two days before.

Oliver Queen stood among the still uncleaned debris as he stared long and hard at Lex's half visible face as the now dead billionaire's blue eyes stared back at him. His conscious raged war, a war that he doubted would ever cease. It was wrong to kill, he knew that. But wasn't he avenging his parents, serving justice for not only them, but for everyone? Lex was dangerous, far more dangerous than even Clark was willing to admit. He had to be stopped and everyone knew that prison wouldn't hold him.

He had to be killed. Right?

Glancing down at the ring he now held in between his fingers, he tilted it slightly so that the green L could reveal itself, the green L that Lex had worn so proudly.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan sat next to her best friend with her hand gingerly on her back. They had been sitting on the sofa in the living room of the apartment above the Talon for a good twenty minutes without saying a word to each other. Instead Lana Lang just glanced around the apartment and occasionally to Chloe while Chloe's green eyes mainly stayed on Lana, with the occasional unsure glance to her lap. Finally their eyes met for longer than a couple of seconds and Chloe knew that Lana now wanted to be comforted. She couldn't take the pain alone anymore. All her time spent testing and training her body to endure physical pain didn't, couldn't, train her for this.

Chloe offered a comforting hug, but as much as she appreciated it, it wasn't as comforting as Clark's would have been.

* * *

Clark Kent ascended the wooden stairs to the second story of his barn, located on the Kent family farm, retreating to the only place he could possibly feel any comfort at all, if it was even possible at this point in time with his mind as numb as it was. But he stopped short when he saw Lana Lang standing on the landing waiting for him. But now he didn't hesitate in approaching her.

"Clark, wait, I don't want to hurt you," she protested as she recognized him moving closer, her hands raised for emphasis. She was wearing black, she was mourning.

But, for her, Clark stopped. "Lex already took care of that," he replied in a darker tone than would normally be expected from the mild mannered farmboy. She was at a loss for words. "Did you talk to Dr. Groll?" She nodded once as if afraid to answer. "Can he help us?"

After a moment, she barely shook her head. "No."

Both Clark's face and heart fell. There had to be an answer, a way to fix this. "I'm going to do everything I can to fix this, Lana," he said as he started to approach her again, which caused her to back up. "I will find a way for us to be together."

"Clark, he tried everything. He can't reverse the process." He was in disbelief, numb disbelief, as her eyes already started to water. "I love you. I always will. I know what I need to do with my life now. Life is…so precious, so beautiful. And to be able to protect that, that's an amazing gift. I know you feel the same way."

"What we have is beautiful."

"Clark, we made our choice on that roof. And I know we would do it again, because both of us are driven to do this, even if we can't do it again."

"Don't leave. Don't leave again, Lana. Even if we can't be together, I want you in my life."

"That's where you're stronger than me. To…to see you on the street everyday and not be able to touch you…" she replied quietly as she shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Stay."

"No," she whispered. Tightening his jaw, he stepped forward. "Clark, don't."

But he didn't listen. Breathing heavily, he continued up the last bit of stairs and strode closer to her even as she backed up as much as she could. He was in pain, she could see that clearly, but he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't listen. She was practically sobbing as she shook her head, "Clark." He got within two feet of her before he nearly fell over, but he kept his balance, his bright blue eyes focused only on her before continuing forward to put his hands on her shoulders. Instantly, her hands rose to rest on his arms, but she couldn't stop him when he pulled her close for a kiss. One final kiss. A final kiss that was already showing its weakening effects as the skin around his mouth began to grow pale and cracked as the kryptonite seemed to seep into his skin from her suit.

But suddenly he pulled back, unable to take anymore, though he desperately wanted to. Finally, he fell to the ground, leaving Lana sobbing as she half-heartedly tried to help him up. She had to go, now. It was already painful enough. Finally gathering the strength to walk away from Clark, who was still trying to get up off the floor, she said through tears, "Goodbye, Clark."

But she couldn't go entirely, not yet. Pausing on the stairs, she turned to face him once more as he paused in his struggles to glance at her. "That night at the cemetery, when I introduced you to my parents, you told me that I would never be alone. That my mom would always be watching over me. We're in each other's hearts, Clark. I will always be with you. No matter what. I love you."

Finally tears welled up in his eyes as he realized this was going to be the last time he saw her, and he couldn't do anything about it; he was too weak. As she turned to descend the stairs, he watched in numbing pain as she disappeared. It wasn't until after he had lost sight of her that he could finally bring himself to whisper it, "I love you." Returning to a sitting position, now he didn't try to get up; he didn't want to anymore.

* * *

Oliver Queen finally made it back to his penthouse, but his conscious still wasn't at peace yet. He would just have to learn to push it aside, to deal with it. He had to endure.

Stepping off the private lift and into the main room, in which the replaced half clock face that acted as doors as well as decoration loomed, he only took two steps before he noticed something that wasn't there when he last left. A small, white envelope was perched atop his neat desk and with narrowed eyes, he approached it only to scoop it up into his hands.

In elegant cursive, his name was on the front of the envelope, and once he opened the letter inside, he found only a small piece of paper with the same, neat penmanship spoiling a small part of the white.

'_We need to talk_.'

A slight frown crossed the boy billionaire's handsome face, his dull anxiety over what he had committed nearly an hour before acting as an unpleasant backdrop for anonymous notes. He flipped it back over again, searching for a name, a clue, anything, and finding nothing. There was nothing else in the envelope as well. Setting it back on the table he had found it on, the ominous message stared up at him as he stared back with an unsure expression. Tomorrow he would find a way to figure out who left the note, but right now he was just numb. And someone knew why he was numb.


	2. Infamous

**Author's Note:**

This chapter picks up at the end of Infamous. Episode plot summary:

_Lois Lane returns to Smallville and is not happy to see Clark. Linda Lake comes back and threatens to expose Clark's secret if he does not agree to provide her with the inside scoop on all of the "Red-Blue Blur" heroics he performs. Instead, Clark has Lois write his story as a means of controlling the inevitable. In response, Linda announces that Clark is part of an alien invasion, and that he killed Lex Luthor. With the police after him, Clark uses his Legion ring to go back in time and stops Linda from writing her story; Clark destroys the ring afterward. Davis begins taking antipsychotic medication to keep his alien side from coming out. When Linda tries to bring out Doomsday, in an effort to escape from going to prison, Davis keeps the creature from coming by killing her._

* * *

_You've seen the worst of me now.  
I'm all alone, see.  
You lost me somehow.  
And what we're fighting for is peace.  
Are you still in love with me,  
Or someone else?_

_Well are you such a dreamer?_  
_Put yourself in my shoes._  
_Careful what you wish for, love._**  
**[Dreamer - Uh Huh Her]

* * *

Lois Lane sat on the patio of The Coffee Stop, her fingers twiddling together in anxiety as she occasionally glanced around the street next to her. When the barista brought out her coffee, Lois offered a grateful smile before her slender hand wrapped around the warm, cream-colored mug to bring it to her lips. As she lowered the cup back to the table, she glanced around yet again in hopes to see that familiar handsome face that belonged to a farm boy who she had met four years ago in the middle of a corn field.

Little did she know that that specific farm boy stood across the street behind her, watching from afar. Clark Kent silently debated with himself as he watched the beautiful Lois Lane anxiously glance around. Should he meet with her? Should he go sit down and have coffee and a conversation, undoubtedly, about her? Or should he just walk away and bury himself back into the Red and Blue Blur? Lois was a friend, an annoying one, but a friend that he deeply cared about. If he let things get any further, what if they turned out the way things between he and Lana did? He now couldn't touch Lana Lang without collapsing to the floor, he didn't want all of his friendships to suddenly turn sour.

Glancing down to the phone in his hand, he made his decision.

The vibration on the table diverted her attention from the street corner ahead of her to the phone perched atop the metal table. As she picked it up, her heart secretly fell. The chances of it being Chloe or anyone else texting her right now were slim to none. And sure enough, Clark's name was displayed at the top of the screen with a message below it that made even Lois Lane's tough heart take a plunge. 'Sorry swamped with work, can't make it.'

With the disappointment and hurt clear in her eyes, she shook her head, trying to reestablish the barricades around her heart again as she texted back.

Clark silently awaited her response as he still watched from across the street, but when his phone beeped and he read the message, he felt something he couldn't quite explain. 'Chasing a lead, couldn't make it anyway.' She was being Lois and playing it off, even though it had been obvious that for the past five minutes, she had been eagerly anticipating his arrival. He hadn't hurt her, had he? Or even if he did, maybe it was for the best? Taking a breath, he stepped off the curb and headed away from the Coffee Stop and away from Lois Lane as she sat alone on the patio, finishing her coffee with silent disappointment.

* * *

Surprised was one word to describe Bruce Wayne when he walked into his office to find Tess Mercer seated in his chair, gazing out the wall of windows that lined the office to overlook part of Gotham. Well, it explained his secretary's sudden disappearance.

"When I first heard about you, Mr. Wayne, I didn't think that anyone could be more flamboyant than Oliver Queen," she began as she slowly turned the chair so she could face the boy billionaire who was already over his surprise and shutting the door to his office behind him. "But to not answer your phone, flirt with any pretty woman in sight, and come in to work at three in the afternoon, I think you take the cake."

"You know," Bruce replied as he quickly and easily recovered from the surprise to assume the very role that she was assuming was all there was to Bruce Wayne. Once he shut the door, he turned back around to face the pretty new CEO of LuthorCorp, or what was left of LuthorCorp, and his bright blue eyes wandered over her to get a better look. "I think cake sounds delicious right now. Would you like some?"

Her response was what he was aiming for: impatience. It would throw her off. She, undoubtedly, flew here, of all places, to soothe the great and competitive minds of Wayne Enterprises as well as, if Oliver was as predictable as Bruce hoped him to be, investigate why, exactly, Bruce Wayne had visited Metropolis and left Oliver an anonymous note. So, therefore, she would want to be in control of the conversation, to know exactly what was going on. Throw in a little of the Bruce Wayne playboy act that he had gotten so good at over the past few months and the tables were turned.

Standing from his chair, she rounded the desk to stand in front of him with an unenthused look in her eyes, but a coy smile still present on her face. "Mr. Wayne, instead of cake, how about we discuss what you were doing in Metropolis last week?"

He paused as he thought about it for a moment, and in doing so, he stepped towards one of the many windows so he could look at _his_ city instead of _her_ unbelievably readable face. "The last I checked, Miss Mercer, I don't think that I'm breaking any laws by traveling to Metropolis."

"And what about breaking and entering?"

He couldn't help the smirk that slipped into his blue eyes, but luckily he was still facing the windows. So between Oliver and Tess, they had been clever enough to catch that. But he managed to pull a slightly confused expression onto his handsome face before turning back around to look at his competitor. "Breaking and entering?"

"You left an anonymous note in Oliver Queen's penthouse. How else could you have gotten in a secure room?"

"What note?"

Her eyes narrowed, not liking him lying to her face, even though she had no proof it was him anyway. "That matter aside, Mr. Wayne, we both know why you were in Metropolis, so why don't you attempt your proposal now?"

He gave her that sly little smile that most did not see from the Prince of Gotham as he approached her only to stop at an uncomfortably short distance away from her, but she did not flinch. "Whatever made you decide to give away Lex Luthor's company to one of his rivals must be a result of personal reasons, personal reasons that I'm sure you don't want certain people to know about." A hesitant expression crossed her features as she didn't like where this was headed. "So I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you here when we both know very well that you stand unmovable at the present moment, but do be prepared to face more than one young billionaire with plenty of toys and free time in Metropolis." Without his icy blue eyes leaving her warm brown ones, his hand motioned towards the door. "Now if you'll please excuse me, Miss Mercer, as much as you may think I just sleep in late and chase girls all day, I actually do have some work I need to finish." More work than she could even fathom to know; with Crane's escape just a week old, already the effects were hitting the streets and were far deadlier than they had been before. He needed to get to work and dealing with Tess was one of the last things on his mind.

With her jaw rigidly set, her eyes scanned his for any hint of something that could be used against the playboy. But there was nothing in those suddenly heartless blue eyes of his. It was slightly startling, actually. But standing up taller, though her height still was no match for the 6'3" Bruce Wayne, she took a couple of steps towards the door before stopping to glance at the billionaire who still had his cold eyes on her. "Mr. Wayne, I would be careful in Metropolis. It's not Gotham City and there you're in enemy territory."

He watched her leave without another word before he slipped into his chair and logged onto the sole computer atop his desk. From the secure server, he took a mental note of where Tess Mercer had been and where she was headed next, according to the flight log of the Queen Industries private jet. She'd been in mainly Europe and Asia, probably trying to soothe relations after the merger that shifted the business world. Although the brief stop in Geneva slightly interested him. There was nothing business related there, aside from Wayne Enterprises. Then the jet flew here to Gotham and would be returning to Metropolis for the short span of a day before flying to Los Angeles. It was almost nothing entirely out of the ordinary, save for the fact that Bruce couldn't hunt down why Tess would be flying to LA. No opening events, no LuthorCorp or Queen Industries tech there, nothing. Perhaps she was recruiting. Or vacationing—especially after the bombing at LuthorCorp. Anything was possible, but that didn't mean that Bruce shouldn't keep an eye on her…though once he had resolved this business in Gotham, he could keep two eyes on her.

After the trip to LA, there was nothing scheduled for the near future, leaving Bruce Wayne plenty of time to visit some old friends face to face.

Although one other blip on his radar did not bode well for the distant future. Within the week, Tess Mercer would gain possession of all of the presumably dead Lex Luthor's personal effects. It was enough grounds for both her to learn of the same obsessions and become more like her previous employer as well as more reason for Lex to want to try and kill her again. Though any scheme of Lex's to kill anyone at the moment wouldn't get past the planning stages currently, there would be a time when his 'condition' would be fixed and neither prison, hospitals, or WayneTech security could keep that revengeful boy billionaire at bay.

Just as an afterthought, Bruce pulled up the files on the very man, updated only minutes before. He was still unconscious, and the doctors—the best doctors money could buy—were still unable to receive positive tests for different treatments. Lex Luthor would be out of the picture for a while.


	3. Hex

**Author's Note: **

In honor of tonight's _Smallville_ premiere (though I didn't get to watch it because my grocery ride conveniently decided to go to the store at seven, but I'll catch it online tomorrow), I give you the long awaited _Hex_.

This chapter takes place after _Turbulence_; episode plot summary:

_Clark begins to embrace the idea of a double identity by wearing his blue shirt under his suit, carrying his red jacket in his backpack, and switching into his Red-Blue Blur persona whenever he needs to. Tess orchestrates an elaborate plan to expose Clark's secret, which involves stranding the two of them on a plane on the verge of crashing. Clark manages to get the two to safety without Tess seeing him use his powers. Meanwhile, Jimmy witnesses Davis murdering a man in the hospital, but Davis drugs Jimmy with a hallucinogen to make it appear that he is delusional. After witnessing Chloe and Davis hugging, and having Chloe stun him with a taser before he could hit Davis with a pipe, Jimmy informs Chloe that marrying her was a mistake and he walks out on her._

* * *

_I can not not believe when you stand here before me,  
How can you understand what is so hard to say,  
Can't find the words to describe it 'cause it is getting away._

_Maybe they know what they're missing.  
Maybe they don't realize.  
I believe in the magic I see in your eyes.  
_[I Believe in Magic - Hurricane #1]_  
_

* * *

Dance music blasted through the room as several of the young elites of Metropolis danced to it while others gossiped about the latest news.

But the birthday girl, Chloe Sullivan, stood on the balcony of the Ace of Spades nightclub, looking out over the still bustling city as it glittered with the nighttime lights. Absentmindedly rubbing the ring on her finger, she wondered how it all went so wrong. One minute she was the naïve Chloe Sullivan whose primary interest concerned those that had a history with meteor rocks, then she was nearly in heaven as she was about to get married to the perfect man, and now she was left with nothing. Maybe Jimmy was right, maybe keeping secrets for so long had tarnished her ability to trust. Or what if she was just afraid of trusting Jimmy, of letting him fully into her life? After all, it was probably her fault in some way that Jimmy was in the hospital in the first place.

A box with a red bow was suddenly set in front of her, which not only distracted her from her thoughts but brought a smile to her face as she read the small note on top. 'From Clark.' "Clark, you shouldn't have."

But as she turned to face her best friend, only Oliver Queen smiled awkwardly back at her as he leaned against the railing next to her. Her smile instantly fell as he tried his excuse for Clark, "Clark's sorry he couldn't make it. He and Bart are—"

"Yeah, dealing with a crisis in Keystone. I know."

He smiled back at her before glancing to the present. "Come on, let's see what you got."

She quickly opened it and after pulling back the tissue paper, she nearly scoffed. _Tales of the Weird and Unexplained_ gazed up at her and she picked it up. "Wow. I haven't seen this in ages." Quietly, she smiled slightly. Leave it to Clark to remember the better times when things were just simply…weird and unexplained.

Oliver glanced from the book to her, slightly curious about her sudden silence. "Are you okay?"

She glanced to him and nodded. "Yeah." Slipping the book back into the box, she shrugged, "Birthdays just make me a little reflective."

"What do you say we get you out of your head and in to the party?" She nodded slightly. "Come on."

But as soon as they both walked back into the party, Chloe's shoulders fell as her eyes found her successful cousin, Lois Lane, chatting with a couple of other Metropolis elites and completely enjoying herself. Oliver stopped alongside Chloe as his eyes wandered to where she was staring. "See? Case and point. That was supposed to be my life," Chloe said as she pointed to her cousin, and Oliver's gaze followed. "Ollie, when did this happen? One day, I'm on the fast track to my career as the intrepid reporter, and I blink and all of a sudden I'm this under-qualified shrink for meteor infected kids, who will probably wake up to be psycho killers, while Lois and Clark are walking the beat with matching press passes together." Oliver, who presently had his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slouched a little more than usual so he could listen to the smaller blonde, gave a small nod occasionally as he glanced between the two relatives with a deeply concentrated and concerned expression on his handsome face. "Oh, and did I mention that I was actually able to hold on to happily ever after for about 2.3 seconds before my marriage imploded?" Chloe continued as she glanced to Ollie, who was now fully looking at her with the same, unmoved expression, before raising her eyebrows.

He stared at her for a moment before replying, "Is this the part where you belt out the soprano Zairian and drive a dagger into your corset?"

She sighed as she looked away. "Right. Sorry for the operetta. It's just I would love to know how she does it."

"You know, Chloe, if I didn't know you any better, I'd say there was a hint of jealousy in there."

She frowned as her eyebrows furrowed. "No," she protested, but instantly her face softened. "It's just…with all the Debbie-ups and -downers lately, I guess it would be nice to leave it all behind and be back in the bullpen."

Oliver was trying to figure out something to say in a more comforting tone than the last couple of things that left his mouth, but suddenly Lois was right behind him. "Chloe!" Handing her younger cousin a cupcake with a lit candle, she continued, "One more year closer to the sweet release of death."

Chloe smiled slightly as she glanced from her cousin to Ollie, "How wonderfully morbid-"

"Chloe, I'm so sorry," Lois instantly began again. "There's been a factory workers revolt in Mexico City and the Planet is flying me down _el primero claso_, the wheels are down in thirty." Stepping forward to put a plastic 'Birthday Girl' crown atop Chloe's head, which earned an eyebrow raise from both Chloe and Ollie, she continued in a more loving, less excited tone, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Love you," she said as she leaned forward for a quick hug and a smile before taking off for the door.

Chloe just shook her head.

No one, however, noticed the beautiful woman who had been watching the scene patiently from a short distance away with a box full of magic tricks on her lap; her cover for the evening. Carefully she stood, ready to make her move.

Oliver's phone suddenly rang and as soon as he found it in one of his pockets, he glanced at it with slight disappointment and slightly annoyance. Bruce Wayne. He glanced to Chloe, "Oh, Chloe, I've gotta—"

"Duty calls," she replied understandingly with a small, disappointed smile. "It's fine."

"Chloe, I'm sorry. Happy birthday." She nodded in response as he turned to stride away, but the billionaire only got two steps before being interrupted by the strange woman.

"Now there's a man who looks like he needs a little magic in his button up life."

"Uh…you know what?" Oliver began as he searched and instantly found a way out of the delaying situation. "I wouldn't want to keep the _hocus pocus_ away from the birthday girl. How about a little something special for someone who truly deserves it, okay?" he finished as he brought the magician to stand in front of a depressed Chloe before disappearing again to leave the pair standing there.

The woman's eyes followed the billionaire until he disappeared entirely from sight before she glanced back to the 'birthday girl', taking an extra look at the sad excuse of a cake. "Rough birthday, huh?"

Chloe's eyebrows raised. "You ever seen the napalm bomb scene in _Apocalypse Now_? More fire, less cake."

"Let's make sure tomorrow's a better day, hm?" Chloe nodded; if it was at all possible, a better day would be nice right now. "Make a wish."

Raising the cupcake so she could look into the tiny flame atop it, Chloe didn't notice the woman's dark eyes suddenly change to a bright blue color. Instead, her own green eyes went to Lois, who was laughing into a phone as she waited for the elevator, as she instantly thought of what she might wish for. Looking back to the candle, she blew it out.

* * *

"So just breaking and entering into my penthouse wasn't enough for you, you had to repeat the law breaking with my office," Oliver Queen said without hiding any of his annoyance as he strode into the large LuthorCorp office.

Bruce Wayne's brow rose as he watched the older billionaire with amusement from the swivel chair in front of the large desk of Lex Luthor, or Oliver Queen, as the latter preferred. "I think I already cleared my name with your partner in crime, Oliver."

Oliver paused as he stopped on the other side of the large desk. "So what can I do for you, Mr. Wayne, to keep you out of Metropolis and out of my office?"

The younger man smiled. "I'm just curious as to the details of the LuthorCorp-Queen Industries merger. After all, your cooperation with Tess Mercer can possibly hurt my company's well-being."

"Oh, I'm sure it would, Bruce, but that's not my problem. Tess came to me for the merger, and as you can tell, I was willing to go through with it. Now if there's any possibility that you can change history in the making, Tess would be your only option, although I'm sure her stance on this is firmer than mine."

"See, now that's what I'm curious about, Oliver," Bruce replied swiftly as he leaned back in his chair. "Why would Tess Mercer, the new controlling CEO of LuthorCorp, want to merge and share her company and power with you?"

Ollie's eyes narrowed, but before he could answer, his phone chimed from his pocket. Digging it out, he answered quickly, "What?"

Bruce just waited patiently as the conversation continued over the phone lines, a conversation that he would be glad to listen to later.

"Try the head of the division. If anyone knows anything, he does." Without another word, he flipped the phone shut, slipped it back into his pocket, and directed his attention towards Bruce. "Whatever is going through Tess Mercer's head is her own business. As a good businessman, Bruce, when I see an opportunity, I take it. I would suggest that you do the same."

"I'll keep that in mind, Oliver," Bruce replied as he stood, presenting that there was nothing else he wanted to say _tonight._ "But between now and our next meeting, I would watch your back. In the rest of the business world outside of Metropolis, certain opportunities can seem like bad ideas."

* * *

After taking some ASA tablets, Chloe Sullivan sat down lazily on her bed, still fully dressed in her green dress and her plastic crown still in her hair. With a sigh, she turned off the light and flopped down on the bed, while not bothering to get under the covers.

Unfortunately, the night passed by too quickly and her alarm was already buzzing obnoxiously. Throwing her legs over the side of her bed to slip them into her awaiting white bunny slippers, she reluctantly got out of bed and shuffled over towards her bathroom. But something caught her eye before she could make it there. As soon as she passed the full body mirror, she paused as she woke up enough to notice something wasn't right. Approaching the reflective surface, with her too-small bunny slippers and green dress, her brown eyes widened from underneath the brunette bangs and the plastic crown still atop her head. A familiar, yet not familiar enough, face gazed back at her. "Oh my god, I'm Lois."

* * *

Bruce Wayne had actually gotten a small amount of sleep during the nighttime hours during his stay in Metropolis, a rare occurrence as of late. But last night he had no reason to don the cape and cowl in Metropolis, and since small amounts of surveillance and research weren't urgent matters, he mostly waited until he awoke at the lovely hour of four in the morning from one of his many nightmares to begin it, starting with Oliver Queen's most recent phone records. His especial interest was the phone call made while Bruce was visiting the blonde billionaire. According to the satellite records, the call was made from a phone with Metropolis's area code, but from Keystone City.

_"What?"_

_"We've cleaned up the mess, but we can't find the source. Would you have any ideas, Oliver?"_ That voice sounded strangely familiar.

_"He better. I haven't eaten in ten hours and I'm ready to eat a whale."_ This voice, which was in the background, however, Bruce had never heard of, but it sounded like a teenager's voice more than anything. An annoyed, sarcastic teenager who, surprisingly, didn't seem to be kidding around about the whale.

_"Try the head of the division. If anyone knows anything, he does."_

Running voice scans on the small feed that he had, Bruce quickly pinpointed the owners of the two voices: Clark Kent and Bart Allen. Bart Allen was a mystery to him personally, but Clark Kent was the same Clark that had managed to visit Oliver Queen without Bruce's visual notice, the same Clark Kent who had some sort of 'secret'. This kid just seemed to be everywhere.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan heaved a heavy sigh as she tried to finish buttoning the too-small purple top around Lois's large chest. "So everything's okay with you in Mexico, Lois?" she said into the phone that was presently resting between her shoulder and her ear.

_"Everything's great! Except for government oppression and slave labor, why?"_ replied the real Lois Lane over her cell phone from the back of a camouflaged Jeep driving through the desert full of soldiers and supplies.

"Uh…" Chloe began as she turned away from the mirror to grasp the phone with her hand. "It's just…" she sighed, trying to find the right words without completely tipping Lois off that something really wasn't right, not right enough for the ace reporter to fly back to Kansas. "You sure? Nothing weird?"

_"No, Chlo. What is going on? You don't sound like yourself."_

Chloe's now brown eyes darted back and forth; her voice was Lois's voice now. "No, me?" She shook her head. "Just got a frog in my throat."

_"K…Well you take care."_

The other Lois smiled hesitantly. "You, too." But as soon as she hung up, the smile vanished as a worried expression crossed her face.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan, or 'Lois Lane', as everyone else saw her as, stepped into The Daily Planet with an unsure look on her face. But no one seemed to notice as, starting with the man who was already climbing up the stairs towards her, everyone greeted her as if she was bossy, know-it-all, ace reporter Lois Lane.

"Hey Lois." Someone casually called with a smile.

"Nice job on that City Hall piece, Lane," a blonde woman with glasses said as she passed 'Lois' on the stairs with a wide smile.

'Lois's' eyes followed the woman so that when she looked back to where she was going, she stopped suddenly to see a man standing in front of her, holding up plastic wrapped clothes and a coffee mug. "Dry cleaning and your morning coffee, Miss Lane."

She just stared for a moment at his beaming face before replying, "Thanks, um…"

"Don't worry, Miss Lane. You'll remember my name one of these days."

She stared at him in disbelief before taking both items with a sigh as the man headed past her and up the stairs. Wow. Just wow. "Right."

Strolling into the bullpen, she found Lois's desk and set everything down on it as her eyes caught on all of the press passes and pictures that lined it. A couple of backstage, VIP, and rally passes littered the desk alongside a framed photo of smiling Lois with her arm around some Asian monk; another VIP pass hung from the corner of the frame. Slipping off her too-small jacket and setting it on the desk as well, she pushed her hair back behind her ears as she sat down to remove the paper, and left over sandwich, from atop the keyboard. With a sigh, she opened up the Digital Wave search engine and typed in 'Zatanna, Metropolis'. Top results were posters for Zatanna, the Mistress of Magic, who was in town with a limited engagement. She was a musician, and her tricks obviously worked.

"Lois?"

At the sound of Clark Kent's familiar voice, Chloe spun around to spot him from across the room. "Thank god, Clark."

"You couldn't have been deported that quickly. Why aren't you in Mexico?" he asked as he strode towards her with a file of papers tucked in his hand. She stared at him in slight disbelief. Surely Clark would know it was her and not Lois. Opening her mouth to say something, she stopped as Clark stopped next to her desk with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Isn't there a limit as to how tight a shirt can be to meet dress code?" he questioned as he glanced around to avoid looking at her chest.

"Really. Even you?"

Thinking she was talking about the shirt issue, he shrugged as he glanced around, already turning beet red, "Well…"

"Here's the thing," she replied as she stood. "I never made it to Mexico."

"Right, can this wait until after your post-lunch, pre-dinner, after coffee, snack break?" She just stared at him. "I can't imagine you having anything more to say after last night."

"Last night?" she questioned as her eyes followed him, even though he stepped around her to get to the coffee table.

"Yeah, you called me five times from the airport, once from the airplane."

"You had time to answer six phone calls and you couldn't call Chloe on her birthday?"

"Chloe knows that sometimes I get hung up at the…farm," he replied as he turned around to face 'Lois' with a coffee mug in his hand. "And if this not-so-hidden attitude is because you still think I'm taking Jimmy's side on the whole break-up thing is because I believe there are two sides to every story."

Chloe's expression changed into a cynical one as she took a breath and raised her slender brows. "Really. Exactly what two sides?"

"He may have gone overboard on the whole Davis Bloome, serial killer thing, but it's got to be tough when the person you're trying to build your life with doesn't believe in you." Her expression changed once more, but now 'Lois' just looked hurt as she reflected on Clark's words. "Lois, are you alright?"

"No, I am definitely not alright."

A slightly thrown Clark shook his head as his computer chimed, announcing a new development on the streets of Metropolis. "This should help. Police stand-off. Main and 5th. Grab your jacket," he said as he grabbed his and already started heading for the door. But he paused after taking two steps and noticing that 'Lois' was still staring in disbelief at her desk. "Isn't this the part where you tell me to saddle up?"

Grabbing her dry cleaning as she put a more serious expression on her face, 'Lois' replied, "Start your engines…Smallville."

Clark smiled before turning towards the stairs as Chloe took and extra second before following.

* * *

Oliver Queen stared at the headline and the matching picture adorning the day's _Daily Planet_ with that same feeling of remorse that he always got whenever Lex Luthor was mentioned. 'Search Continues in Luthor Murder.' But when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, he lowered the paper as his attention went to the door, which was where a lovely young woman with raven black hair stood waiting. It was the second time within twenty four hours that someone had come into his office unannounced. He eyed her for a moment before setting down the paper and approaching with his charming smile. "Now why do I get the feeling you're not my ten o'clock from the steel union?"

"Zatanna," she replied with as she held out her hand. "We weren't properly introduced."

"Zatanna," he replied as he shook her hand. "You lose a bet with that name?"

She laughed. "It's a family thing."

"Okay," he replied as he scooped up some of the papers on the table behind her before facing her. "So, uh, Zatanna, is it, right? Do you mind telling me what drives a lovely young woman, such as yourself, to track down an unsuspecting CEO at a nightclub and then again at his office?"

"I need your help."

"You don't scream charity case."

She smiled. "My father left me an estate in Shadowcrest, so money isn't an object."

"Shadowcrest," Oliver replied thoughtfully as he leaned against the back of one of the sofas in the room. "John Zatara?" he replied, slightly amazed, once he connected the dots. "The Maestro of Magic? He was your father?"

She just nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose family."

"Yeah. I lost more than my father. I lost his entire legacy, recorded in a book that's been passed down through generations. There's a bible's worth of my heritage recorded in those pages. When my father died, Mr. Luthor acquired that book at auction."

Ollie nodded. "Well, no offence, Zatanna, but, uh, you're the daughter of the world's greatest magician, can't you just…I don't know, wiggle your nose or pull it out of a hat or something?"

She grinned. "You're cute. And no. My father refused to teach me much beyond practical parlor tricks."

"Oh, uh…" he said as he crossed the room to stand on the opposite side of his desk from her. "I'm sorry, I really wish I could help. Queen Industries may have absorbed all of LuthorCorp's holdings, but I'm afraid Lex's lawyers won't let me anywhere near his private collection."

She nodded as she took a step closer. "I thought I was going to have to use a little incentive. See, I have the ability to grant one wish, big or small, whatever you wish for in that moment, it can be yours."

They stood on opposite sides of the small desk, both of their hands atop it and both pairs of opposite colored eyes locked onto the other pair. "Well that's very tempting, but as you can see," he gestured by glancing around with his eyes, "I'm pretty comfortable with my life where it is."

"Well, there has to be somebody you've lost, something that you've done that you wish you could take back." Ollie's face soured slightly as she hit a nerve. "Get me my book and I'll make it happen. Offer expires at midnight." He glanced down at the newspaper with Lex's hardly innocent face looking back up at him from the desk below as Zatanna Zatara vanished.

* * *

Bruce Wayne stood from his position on the floor to go fetch a glass of water from the kitchen sink of the Metropolis penthouse he had bought very quietly only a week before. With his laptop open to the video and audio feed that he had set up the night before, before Oliver's arrival, he had been performing _kata_, a martial art he had learned from a Korean master in the Changansan mountains, next to it, waiting for something fruitful to occur other than Oliver's morning inspection of his equipment that was poorly hidden behind the new glass doors that displayed his family's crest proudly, the paperwork that the new CEO actually did, and now his examination of the daily paper, which just happened to have a picture of Lex Luthor on the front. Bruce knew firsthand what the article was about because he had just finished reading a copy of the day's Daily Planet nearly an hour before and it now sat alongside the laptop. It explained Lex's 'death' and the how the fake remains found were identified as Lex's. Pay off enough people and alter some records and it's not terribly hard to fake someone's death, even Lex Luthor's. It also blamed Lex's death on Winslow Schott, the bomb maker hired to kill Oliver, due to the type of bomb found at the scene of the explosion, the same bomb that actually had Oliver's name on it only minutes before.

Although, as Bruce watched from his current position that was beginning to make him sweat from keeping his balance, he easily noticed the longing look that Ollie gave the front page. As angry as Oliver Queen might be at him when it is finally revealed that Lex Luthor was not dead after all, deep down, the blonde boy billionaire would be grateful to have been saved from making that mistake.

The woman who now stood in his office held enough familiar interest for Bruce that he paused in his exercise and sat in front of the laptop to watch the conversation.

Zatanna Zatara. She looked just as beautiful as she did years ago. Though she had obviously grown, she still held herself with all the confidence she should have. Bruce probably betted that her bright eyes still held that hint of mischief in them all the time.

It was Zatara, Zatanna's father, who had taught Bruce Wayne how to master the art of escape only a few years before. Under another name, Bruce had toured with the pair, Zatanna only a young teenager at the time, for a couple of months as he learned the difficult skill. But while he had grown fond of them both, he knew that Zatara knew both petty parlor tricks and things that were much more dangerous in the world of magic. This book that Zatanna spoke of was the key to it, and Bruce knew that she knew exactly what it held within its pages and that it was more than just some family history.

Taking a long drink, long enough to empty the small glass, he gazed at the laptop screen as predictable Ollie headed for his own computer to begin his research on how to retrieve the book. And knowing that Oliver Queen wasn't about to waltz into some high security vault to fetch the book, it was time for another Batman interception to keep the Green Arrow from doing something stupid, yet again.

* * *

"You haven't insulted me once yet today," Clark Kent said as both he and Lois Lane, who was actually Chloe Sullivan trapped in Lois's image, rounded a corner, which 'Lois' practically tripped around. "And you actually crossed the crosswalk. Did Jeff not bring you your coffee today?"

"Uh…Let's just say I rolled out of bed on the right side. It's amazing how much more you can see with…fresh eyes. So, anything else you're not telling me—" She tripped over a crack in the heels she wasn't used to wearing, but before she hit the pavement, sure enough Clark had caught her in his arms. She glanced up at him, still slightly surprised she hadn't ended up with a severe backache as he looked down at her with a pair of baby blue puppy dog eyes that said it all, and that Chloe Sullivan hadn't seen in a very long time, especially not focused on her.

"What's the look for?"

"You've just never looked at me that way before," she replied with a slight smile as her brown eyes tried to read everything from Clark's blue pair.

He looked slightly thrown as he set her back on her feet and the pair looked over each other…until the sound of a megaphone echoed down the street. "Oh! There's our story calling," 'Lois' replied as she quickly headed towards it. A slightly suspicious Clark followed.

The pair stopped just outside the police barricades as they watched a man atop the top flight of the fire escape of a building, hurtling pillows at police officers who were trying to approach him as he yelled at them through the megaphone in Latin.

"Technically, it still is a standoff," Clark said as he moved to stand next to 'Lois', his eyes fixed on the scene.

A police officer took a breath as he approached 'Lois' while withdrawing a wad of cash from his pocket to hand to her. "Alright, Lane. This clears me up from Friday night's poker game. And by the way, I've been working on my bluff."

She just stared at him for a brief moment. "Right. Keep up the good work there, tough guy," she replied with a smile, earning a slightly confused look from both the cop and Clark. "So what's the deal with our Sophocles and town crier up there?"

Once more the cop glanced to Clark for confirmation on 'Lois's' strange behavior. "Yeah, well, here's the situation. The nutjob up there on the fire escape? He owns Uri's Antiques over on Main Street. He's been babbling in Latin all day—"

_"Zatanna! Zatanna!"_

After taking a glance towards the babbling man, the cop glanced back to Lois. "Yeah, I'll see you on Friday."

As the man continued, 'Lois's' eyes narrowed as she translated what he was saying, "Woman. Magic. Cursed tongue. Book brings death."

"Since when did you speak Latin?" Clark asked as he glanced over at her.

_"Zatanna! Zatanna!"_

"Zatanna. Clark!" she exclaimed as she spun around to grab his arm and begin to pull him away from the crowd. "I'm betting it was that same witchy woman who did this to me. Now I know where she's performing tonight. Maybe you can superspeed over to this antique shop and dust off any leads."

Now Clark was really thrown as he tried to cover up the tracks that 'Lois' somehow stumbled upon. "Superspeed. We didn't even bring a car."

"What?" Suddenly she realized that she was still in Lois's body and Clark still had no idea that it was really her, Chloe. "It's okay! I'm Chloe." His baby blue eyes narrowed. "Stood-her-up-at-formal Chloe? Planted-one-on-you-because-Zod-was-ending-the-world Chloe?" Still nothing. "Krypton, Jor-El, fortress, Braniac Chloe!"

His eyes widened as he looked her over, comprehending, "Chloe."

"Bingo! And just like that raven wardrobe malfunction over there, some magician showed up at my birthday party last night and hexed me, but you'd probably know that if you hadn't skipped it to answer voicemails from Lois." Clark opened his mouth to say something, but she continued before striding away, "Not that I'm dwelling."

* * *

It wasn't hard to find the theatre that had 'Zatanna' plastered all over it. "Not exactly hiding out, is she?" Chloe Sullivan stated.

"You just woke up like this? How did I not pick up on it sooner?" Clark Kent stated in awe as he blatantly examined her.

"Just forget about it. This is my Shakespearean nightmare," she replied as she tried to open the first set of doors. "Not yours." Finding no success, she moved on to the next set. "Although it has been awfully illuminating."

"Listen, what I said about Jimmy—"

"You're an equal opportunity good guy, I get it. I guess I'm just not used to seeing you from this perspective. By the way," she began as she headed for the next set of doors. "_Tales of the Weird and Unexplained_…nice callback."

"I thought it might bring you back to a time when things were—"

"Weird and unexplained?" Clark nodded. "You sound like you miss it."

"Oh, I don't know. It's just that there's a whole half of my life when this happens everyday. Weird has become so normal it's not even weird anymore. Honestly I like what I'm doing at the Planet now. But there are days that I would be lying if I said that I could just forget about saving the world and be a normal reporter," he replied as he easily forced the door open, which caused the lock to break.

"Well, for now, how about you not stick to your day job," she replied before slipping inside as he followed.

* * *

Zatanna Zatara sat in her dressing room, her slender fingers tilting a picture that hung on the side of her mirror upwards. A picture of her father and her. "It won't be much longer, father."

"Much longer for what?"

Her attention redirected towards the reflection in the mirror where Clark Kent and 'Lois Lane' stood in the doorway of the room. Her eyes narrowed before she turned to face them. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

'Lois' scoffed, "Does an enchanted cupcake ring any bells?"

Recognition crossed Zatanna's face with a smile. "You were the birthday girl."

"You need to reverse the curse that you put on Chloe," Clark demanded as he stepped further into the room.

"Curse," Zatanna replied, sounding insulted as she, too, stepped closer to the two intruders. "Is that what you think happened? Kind of got things backwards. I granted you a wish."

'Lois' scoffed again, only this time is was more hesitant, "Why on earth would I wish myself into this?"

"Beats me. I don't write the magics, honey, I just use them. But now I'm not saying this is your hearts deepest desire, but in that moment, this is what you wanted."

Even more hesitant, 'Lois' slightly shook her head before blurting, "Okay, just for a second, maybe I was a little jealous of Lois living my dream life with Clark at the Planet." Clark glanced at her with a confused expression, but she continued, "But I didn't literally want her life. Not like this."

"Don't worry. It'll wear off as soon as you don't want it anymore."

'Lois' took a deep breath as Clark cast another unsure glance towards her. She took a couple steps forward to stand right in front of Zatanna. "_Fine_. I don't want it."

Zatanna ran her eyes over 'Lois' still unchanged form before smiling with a slight scoff of her own. "You keep telling yourself that."

'Lois's' eyes shifted around quickly, but Zatanna had already turned back towards her mirror and Clark was already striding past 'Lois'. "You really think that man at the antique shop really wanted to end up rambling on like a crazy person?"

Zatanna turned around again, looking insulted once more. "Maybe he wanted a better understanding of dead languages. I want an heirloom of my father's. We helped each other out. Fair trade."

"About that heirloom," Clark prompted, his blue eyes narrowed. "What did Yuri mean when he said that book you were after would bring death?"

Back at her mirror once again, Zatanna had picked up a small box—one of her tricks—and ran her fingers over the edges as she dug for an excuse. "Some people can be a little superstitious."

"And that makes it okay to use them."

Zatanna spun around again, setting down the box on her dresser table. "Use them? I give people what they want." She paused, her eyes scanning over Clark while 'Lois' caught on to her change of pace. "Look, everyone has something they want. Something… something they wish they could change. Even you." She took a couple steps forward, keeping Clark's eyes locked with hers. "I wonder what your wish would be." Zatanna's eyes suddenly shifted colors and Clark's expression went from determined to confused.

"Clark." 'Lois' suddenly interrupted as she tugged at his arm. "Oh no, Clark," she said as she searched Clark's eyes. Turning to confront Zatanna again, they both found the room empty. While Clark still looked slightly confused, 'Lois' turned back to him, clasping his arms with her hands. "Are you okay?"

He just smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Really?" she tried again, worry clear in her brown eyes.

He lifted his eyebrows ever so slightly as if to repeat himself.

"Something has to be different." She looked closer into his eyes and he, still hesitant and confused, looked back before offering her a smile.

* * *

"I never should have brought you along," 'Lois Lane' began to reprimand as she shoved open the door to the theater with Clark Kent following closely behind. "I forgot that magic affects you just like the rest of us. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes, Lois," Clark replied unenthusiastically. "Stop asking me that. And what do you mean by the 'rest of us?'"

"It's just that—" 'Lois' stopped in her tracks, her brown eyes widening. "Wait." Slowly she turned around to face Clark. "What did you just call me?"

A woman across the street suddenly screamed as a man tried to rip her purse from her hands. The scream caught 'Lois's' attention and her head whipped around to see where it came from. But she was expecting a sudden rush of air as Clark did his Red-Blue Blur thing, or whatever; and she was disappointed.

Turning back around to face Clark, she caught him trying to look away from what was happening across the street. But he quickly gave up trying to look away and just shook his head slightly. _Why wasn't anyone helping that poor woman?_

She narrowed her eyes in confusion. _Why wasn't Clark helping that woman? _"Aren't you going to do anything?" 'Lois' demanded as she gestured towards the scene, the man's rough housing growing worse as the woman refused to release her purse.

Clark glanced to 'Lois' then glanced back to the scene with a more determined look on his face than before. "You're absolutely right, Lois," he agreed as he took a couple of steps forward, his hand reaching in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and put it to his ear. "911," Clark said into the phone as 'Lois's' jaw dropped.

* * *

"How gullible to you think I am, Lois?" Clark Kent asked as he stepped out of the elevator in the basement of the Daily Planet.

'Lois Lane', with a clearly worried expression on her face, tried her refute yet again. "I'm Chloe," she whispered as she hurried to keep up with him.

"Right. At first I had trouble telling you two apart as well. Lois is the tall one," he replied without slowing in his stride, but he did manage to cast a glance over his shoulder towards 'Lois'.

She gave him a disapproving look in return. "You just acknowledged that I was Chloe before our run-in with Zatanna. She bibbity-bopity-booed you too."

Pausing at his desk to grab something, he turned around to head across the bullpen. "Lois, there's no such thing as magic. It's all trap doors and wires."

"Clark, think about it. Right before we walked in there you were just complaining about how easy it would be to forget the whole hero, alien…everything weird side and were just a regular mundane report living an everyday life."

Clark returned to his desk and slipped of his jacket as he glanced back to 'Lois'. "If something seems too weird to be true, it usually is." 'Lois's' eyes narrowed in confusion again, which earned a confused look from Clark as well. "It's rule number four."

"What?"

Clark sighed and pulled open his desk drawer. "Lois Lane's rules of reporting." He picked up a picture frame before shutting the desk drawer and handing it to Lois. "Come on, like you never let me forget."

'Lois' looked over list, the small sarcastically ironic side of the humor in life trying to nudge its way into both her expression in her mind:

_'LOIS' RULES OF REPORTING.  
1.) Always know your source.  
2.) Always make a good first impression (and don't screw up with the boss).  
3.) Do whatever it takes to get the story.  
4.) If something seems too weird to be true, it usually is.  
5.) Never take deadlines too seriously.  
6.) Triple check your facts.  
7.) Put all the good stuff at the beginning.'_

"And you framed this?" Clark smiled. 'Lois' shook her head, trying to clear it of her disbelief. A couple of years ago, the real Lois Lane had nothing to do with reporting. The last thing she wanted to do was help out at the _Torch_, Smallville High's only newspaper, in high school to help with her missing credits. "Look, you said you only wanted one of your double lives, and whether you meant it or not, the spell thought you did."

"Exactly what other life is it I'm supposed to have, Lois?"

'Lois' opened her mouth to explain, but closed it quickly upon realizing she really didn't know how to explain it. Then her eyes wandered slightly, glad she hadn't said anything. If she did know what to say, in the middle of the bullpen in the Daily Planet was not the place to say it. She suddenly grabbed Clark's arm and led him back towards the elevator.

"Lois, what has gotten into you?" Clark demanded as he was practically thrown out of the rooftop door of the Daily Planet. 'Lois' quickly slipped out of the door and shut it behind her. "Wait a second, we're not allowed to be up here, Lois."

"Clark. Snap out of it." Confusion appeared on his face yet again. "You're a hero."

Clark scoffed, "I'm a regular Green Arrow. Lois I don't make the news. I just report it."

"You are the biggest news there is. You're a superhuman being from another planet."

Clark smirked, "Okay, just don't tell human resources about. Now, I have a deadline to meet." He stepped forward towards the rooftop door, but 'Lois' quickly moved to beat him to the door. She quickly opened it, pulled the lock latch down, and re-shut it, locking them on the roof. She turned back around to meet Clark's unsure expression with a confident one of her own. "Did you just lock us up here?"

"Open the door, Clark."

He rolled his eyes, slumped his shoulders, and released a sigh. "Lois, it's locked, we need a key."

"Open the damn door, Clark."

"Lois-" Clark began again as he reached for the handle and pulled it clean off. She smirked confidently while he stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, at the broken off handle in his hand.

"Now do you believe me?"

"I believe…that this door needs better maintenance. Look at the rust in here. No wonder it just pulled off like that," Clark replied as he examined the handle.

'Lois' rolled her eyes in frustration. "Okay—" she sighed before moving to grab the handle from Clark's hand.

"Now we're going to be stuck up here-" Clark began to complain as 'Lois' moved to stand directly in front of him, her hands held out.

"How about this." She paused, her eyes wandering slightly. "Listen. Really listen. What do you hear?"

At first, Clark just looked annoyed, but as the seconds passed, the annoyed expression vanished and he tilted his head this way and that as he heard more and more things. A fire alarm, a sprinkler system, a bicycle bell, a train horn, a jackhammer, sirens, a helicopter, and thousands of voices talking. He finally looked back to 'Lois' with an amazed expression. She ventured a small smile in hopes that he finally understood. "That's amazing." 'Lois's' smile spread to a full-out grin. "The acoustics up here are incredible," he added as he moved past 'Lois', his eyes searching for some source of the amplified sounds. 'Lois's' face, however, fell, but only momentarily. "It's like there's some perfect echo point right here." 'Lois' grabbed one of the long pipes that were laying abandoned on the rooftop and suddenly charged at Clark, the pipe raised over her head with both hands. But at the last moment, he stepped out of the way and the pipe came down on one of the air conditioning units instead of him.

"Lois! Have you completely lost your mind? That could have really hurt!" Clark demanded.

"No it…" 'Lois' began as she started towards Clark with the pipe still in hand, but he raised his hands to shield himself in case she did it again. At this, she sighed and dropped the pipe while Clark didn't fully lower his guard against her. She sighed again before continuing towards him, her hand gestures emphasizing every word. "No it wouldn't hurt, Clark. You have superspeed and superstrength and superhearing and X-ray vision!"

"And I have a deadline Lois. Now please, if you would excuse me, I need to find a way to get off this roof. Unless my superpowers include an ability to fly," he added sarcastically. 'Lois' looked pained, but wasn't about to admit that she'd lost. "I didn't think so," Clark finished before turning back towards the door. As he ran his hands along the edges in search of some way to pry it open, 'Lois' sighed, her eyes starting to water. If Clark wasn't Clark…well, it'd happened too many times before and if he couldn't even remember or believe who he was supposed to be, how was he supposed to not want his wish anymore?

* * *

Two night guards strolled through their usual patrol through the LuthorCorp warehouse, everything going as smoothly as it did every night. The sound of an arrow singing through the air followed by the ticking of an electronic bomb made the pair stop for a moment to glance at each other before grabbing their guns from their holsters and taking off down the storage isle towards the source of the noise. The stopped once the cleared the end of the isle, both pairs of eyes drawn towards a green arrow sticking out from a pile of crates. The ticking suddenly sped up and as the guards lowered their weapons and moved closer to take a look at the arrow, sleeping gas was suddenly spewed from the weapon as the ticking stopped. Only a matter of seconds and both men were out cold on the floor.

The Green Arrow didn't wait any longer than necessary to lower himself from the rafters behind the unconscious guards. Drawing his small crossbow and aiming it while removing his gas mask, he stepped forward to look over the two men. "Sorry guys," he said in his deep and masked voice. "I'll make sure you get a nice Christmas bonus."

He moved on, stashing the crossbow without wasting a step. He knew the general location of Zatanna's book, but with the aid of a piece of paper he removed from one of his pockets, he narrowed it down to the isle number and location. Though it took a few minutes to find it, he finally found a large crate with the same numbers listed on his paper. Setting the paper down, he withdrew his small crowbar and began to break open the top of the crate. Throwing the tool aside once he no longer needed it, he pulled to top off and set it to the side as his dark eyes peered into the box from behind his sunglasses.

The majority of the box was stuffing, but a small, rectangular, and decorative sheet lay in the center. He quickly pulled it aside to reveal Zatanna's book. It looked old enough to be the right book, and was bound in dark, rough leather with a gold crest on the center of the cover with elaborate designs running through it. Blackened burn marks surrounded the crest. Oliver Queen scooped it up into his hands. "Thanks, Lex."

* * *

The Green Arrow stood next to a dumpster fire, using the light to read through some of the pages. His eyes were narrowed and his brow was furrowed. He obviously didn't like what he was reading.

Quiet applause sounded from behind him as Zatanna Zatara stood, slowly clapping her delicate hands with a wide smile on her face. The Green Arrow turned around to face her, ready for anyone.

"Bravo," she said with a grin as she spread her hands before clapping them together one last time. "You found my book and pulled it off in style."

The Green Arrow cocked his head as he shifted his weight. It was better to try and keep up a lie than give in automatically. She could just be taking a wild guess at who he was. "I wish I could say I've had the pleasure."

She laughed as she stepped closer. "Oh please, Oliver. Ask a billionaire for help and then a vigilante steals exactly what I ask for? You need to work on your sleight of hand."

Oliver Queen hesitated, licking his lips and glancing towards the fire before pulling back his hood and removing his glasses. "Yeah," he replied quietly in embarrassment as Zatanna grinned.

"Now. Give me my book and I'll give you your wish. A deal's a deal."

Oliver's eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced back up to her, balancing the book lightly in one hand. "You know, this isn't just a how-to guide on upping your stage presence. There's some really dark stuff in here, Zatanna."

"You don't get it. The sick irony of my ability is that I can grant so many wishes. Everyone's but mine."

Oliver glanced down at the book again as he shifted it between his hands. Then, every so carefully, he glanced towards the fire he stood next to.

"No!" Zatanna's eyes went straight towards the fire in fear before meeting Oliver's eyes again. "Please, don't. It's the only way I can bring my father back."

Oliver looked back down at the book for a moment before looking back up to her, making up his mind. "I'm sorry." Suddenly he tossed the book sideways, towards the fire. But the book didn't touch the flames at all. It shot through the air towards Zatanna and she caught it easily and instantly flipped it open to a page. Oliver's dark eyes finally followed the book back to its owner as his lips pressed into a thin line. "Not good."

"_Leets yb dnuob_!" As Zatanna began to shout a spell, Oliver grabbed his crossbow and aimed. But before he could fire, or even think about firing, chains from behind Zatanna suddenly flew around her to wrap around him and pin him against the small power surge tower behind him a few feet off the ground. Grunting and squirming so much it made the tower rock and shoot sparks, Oliver tried to talk his way out of this. "You don't want to do this." The tower sparked again. "You can't just bring someone back and change fate."

She shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry. I've waited too long for this." She turned and strode away from Oliver with the book in her hand and a determine look in her eyes. "I'm coming father."

* * *

Batman watched patiently from underneath the underpass over twenty yards away from where Oliver Queen was chained up. Zatanna he could deal with later. Now that she had her father's book, she'd probably be headed to resurrect him, and what he remembered from large spells like that, they usually drew attention.

Oliver Queen, however…

Batman strode out from underneath the underpass, his cape billowing silently behind him. As he approached Oliver from behind, he silently scooped up a pole without missing a step. "She said 'bound by steel'."

Oliver's squirming suddenly stopped as he turned his head as far around as he could to see where the deep and husky voice came from. Batman, however, kept out of his line of sight. "What?"

"Zatanna's spells are words backwards. She said 'bound by steel' backwards," Batman answered without slowing in his work. He quickly slipped the pole between the lowest chain holding Oliver to the tower and slid it upward and between the chains and the tower.

"Good to know," Oliver finally responded with a tightness in his voice from the sudden pressure of the chains, as he gave up trying to get a look at the man behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Take a deep breath."

Oliver hesitated. "Who are you?"

"Take a deep breath," Batman growled again as he held the pole in place, this time his impatience clear in his voice.

Oliver shook his head slightly, not liking taking orders from anyone, least of all some stranger who now knew his identity and could kill him with whatever he was doing. But, then, what exactly did he have to lose? Be stuck up here and found by the cops or found by some criminal who might do worse things? He filled his lungs and quickly released just as Batman pulled the pole out from the chains, causing the chains to slip to the ground—and Oliver, too.

As the tower sparked again from the movement, Oliver quickly got to his feet and turned to confront whoever it was that released him, but he found himself alone. His brown eyes narrowed as he glanced around.

* * *

Clark Kent and 'Lois Lane' entered the small hospital room where Yuri of Yuri's Antiques laid strapped to a bed by his wrists and ankles with his eyes closed. "I'll handle this, Lois," Clark said quietly as he circled the bed. He paused for a moment while 'Lois' closed the door before clearing his throat and adjusting his jacket. "Do you speak English?"

"Yes," Yuri calmly replied. "Do you mind telling me who you are?"

'Lois' approached the bed, her fingers spread nervously at her sides. "Lois Lane, Daily Planet. I'm sorry," she continued with a glance to Clark, "we thought you were under some kind of…spell?"

"She did," Clark added, earning another glance from 'Lois'.

"You know," Yuri said with relief as his attention moved to 'Lois'.

"We know Zatanna gave you a wish in exchange for some information on a book," 'Lois' continued.

"I never should have told her how to find that book. I'm afraid she's too blinded by her grief to see the danger that she's in."

Clark cocked his head. "Say this woman does know magic, what sort of danger are you talking about?"

"She must be stopped from using that book to resurrect her father. She isn't prepared to make the sacrifice."

"What kind of sacrifice?"

"From what I could decipher, the incantation to bring a life back required the taking of a life in return."

"So in order to bring her father back, someone else must die."

"A life for a life," Yuri said sternly before glancing from Clark to 'Lois'. "A soul for a soul."

Both Clark and 'Lois's' eyes were wide as they glanced to each other.

* * *

Zatanna Zatara stood on top of the roof of the Daily Planet, the book open in her hands. This was the perfect place. "As life is lived from front to back, let death be turned back to front," she stated aloud before continuing in a small, desperate whisper. "Grant me my wish." Once more her voice rose as her eyes turned skyward. "Resurrect John Zatara. _Arataz nhoj tcerruser_!"

The slight breeze suddenly turned into a strong wind as the leaves around her feet scattered. The book held open in her hands shook with force as a sudden yellow light shot skywards from the pages. Once in the air, it flashed like lightning as the clouds above the Daily Planet globe began to swirl and glow.

* * *

The only benefit of staying in Metropolis, that Bruce Wayne could see, was the amount of exercise he got. Sure, he kept himself in tip-top form with too many different workouts to count on one hand. But in Metropolis he had to go everywhere on foot. Not only was he still trying to figure out exactly how to get the Tumbler to the sister city, but he didn't want to make his presence known to _everyone_ just yet. Driving around Metropolis in a tank would not only put him in the Daily Planet's pages along with the Green Arrow and the Red and Blue Blur, but what work he had done with Batman's reputation in Gotham would vanish once criminals figured out that the 'murderous' vigilante wasn't prowling the streets anymore.

With his high altitude training still instilled upon him from his years in Asia, running was never a problem. His stamina never hurt matters either.

He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, using his cape to carry him the small distances over alleys and the larger distances over main streets. Not only was it easier to use the rooftops of Metropolis to travel as it kept him unseen, but it was just plain fun. Though, of course, he'd never admit it out loud. Alfred would lock him up in a straight jacket if he did.

_"Master Wayne, do you have a moment?"_ Speak of the devil.

"Not really, Alfred," Bruce huffed aloud, which carried to the microphone inside his cowl.

_"I'm afraid it's rather urgent and concerning your _guest_."_

Bruce stopped himself from jumping to the next roof, slowing as his dark eyes caught sight of something only a few blocks away. "My _guest?_"

_"Mr. Luthor is getting rather curious and rather antsy. It seems the medical help he's receiving is working."_

"And why does this have to be discussed now?" Bruce replied harshly in that Batman growl that Gotham's criminals so feared as his eyes locked on the glow above the large sphere atop the Daily Planet building. He'd found Zatanna.

Alfred continued, seemingly unphased, but there was a new tightness in his voice that Bruce recognized. _"Sir, he knows that he's in a Wayne Enterprises facility. He tried to escape himself and got far enough to discover where he was, though your scientists say that he was very disoriented otherwise."_

"How convenient," Bruce muttered as his eyes narrowed. He needed to deal with Zatanna, to try to talk some sense into her. If anyone could do it, surely he could. But if Lex was able to walk, let alone try and escape, it didn't matter how disoriented he was, that was an accident waiting to happen. In the brief moment that he hesitated, staring at the growing glow atop of the Daily Planet, he saw a form scale the building in less than a second. _A blur._

"Alfred, have my jet ready in ten minutes."

_"Of course, Master Wayne."_

This Red-Blue Blur better be all that the Daily Planet said he was. But if he wasn't…well, this wasn't _his_ city. Batman turned and headed back the way he came towards his penthouse only a couple of blocks south, leaving the glow about the Daily Planet behind him.

* * *

"That guy really sounded like he believed what he was saying," Clark Kent said as he strode down the street with 'Lois Lane' at his side.

"That's because it was true," she impatiently replied. "Now we just need to find Zatanna before she tries to give dear old dad one final encore."

Clark slowed to a stop as a yellow flash caught his eye. Followed by another…and another. 'Lois' quickly glanced the way he was staring to catch sight of the yellow lightning as well, as a yellow cloud began to swirl above the Daily Planet globe. "Except for maybe we're too late."

'Lois' glanced to Clark before running the half-a-block to the sidewalk next to the Daily Planet building, and Clark didn't hesitate in following. "Clark, you're the only person who can get up there and put an end to this right now," 'Lois' said as they both stared up at the roof.

"I know what you're gonna say, but—" Clark began as he tried to turn away.

"No, Clark!" 'Lois' refuted as she grabbed his arms. "There are no buts with you. No exception to the rule. Now superleap up there and stop her!"

Clark hesitated before turning to glance back up at the roof. "Look, I dunno…"

'Lois' sighed, "Look, okay, you know, you don't have to know. If you don't believe in yourself, then let me believe in you." Clark glanced back to 'Lois'. "I know that deep inside you don't want to be a normal guy sitting behind a desk reporting on disasters while you could be out there stopping them. Use the power you feel." They both searched each other's eyes, his unsure and hers pleading. "The world needs you."

Suddenly his blue eyes narrowed and he nodded as he turned back towards the building. A separate glow from what was occurring sixty stories up gleamed from behind him, causing him to turn back around to face 'Lois'. But instead of 'Lois', he found someone else standing behind him. "Chloe! Wait, that's im—"

"Impossible?" Chloe Sullivan filled in for him with a grin. "Only in your mind. Sometimes you just need a little leap of faith. Come on, Clark. You can do this." She began to back away, her grin wider than it had been in weeks. "Up, up and away."

Clark pulled off his jacket and turned back towards the Daily Planet, his mind set. Now he understood, now he remembered. He bent his knees, shifted his weight, and the sidewalk began to crack beneath him. Then with one final push, he shot upwards to jump the sixty story distance with ease.

He landed neatly just as a portal began to open in midair in front of Zatanna. She stared at it misty eyed, the book still in her hands. "Daddy?"

"Zatanna, you need to stop this spell," Clark demanded, earning a sharp look from Zatanna as she snapped out of it.

"Don't move! I need to bring my father back," she replied as she glanced back to the portal.

"At what cost?" Clark stepped forward to stand slightly in front of her, causing her eyes to drift from the portal again and towards him. "Are you willing to sacrifice your life for him?"

"It's what he did for me. He wasn't meant to die. I owe him this. I know the rules." She glanced back towards the portal again as a silhouetted figure moved within it. "A life for a life. I have to make it right. I'm not afraid."

As she began to step forward, Clark caught her arm. "Do you really think your father would want you to give up the life he gave you to bring him back?"

"What would you know about losing the one man who made you who you are?" she demanded, her violet eyes fierce.

Clark's jaw tightened. "The day that I lost my father I thought my world would never be the same. It felt like something had been ripped away from me forever. But I had to let him go."

Zatanna glanced towards the portal once more before looking back to Clark, her eyes filled with emotions; confusion, sorrow, fear. Suddenly the rooftop door opened and Chloe stepped through, striding right next to the hovering portal. Coming too close, it reached out and surrounded her in the same yellow hue that made it, making her gasp before being held stiffly in place.

"Chloe!"

"No! It was suppose to be me!" Zatanna wailed as she stepped closer.

Clark's attention went back to Zatanna, his tone urgent. "We don't get to choose. But we do get to chose how we live the life that we've been given." Zatanna paused and turned back around to face Clark. "I'm finally the man that my father wanted me to be. What does your father want you to be?"

Zatanna looked back to the portal and Chloe, who was wincing with silent pain. She hesitated, her violet eyes pleading. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Close the door," she said louder, firmer. "_Rood eht esolc_."

Yellow lightning shot down from the sky and hit the book in her hands, making it slam shut and fall to the ground. The portal vanished with a flash of light, sending Chloe flying to hit the ground a few yards away. As the wind suddenly died and the cloud above disappeared, Zatanna dropped to her knees, her eyes wide as she tried to find some way to grip a hold of something in her despair.

Clark immediately moved to Chloe's side to help her up. "Chloe?" he muttered as her green eyes darted to meet his, indicating that she was okay. But they quickly shot back to Zatanna. _Was she okay?_ Clark's eyes also glanced to the grieving woman kneeling only a couple feet away. _She would be alright. She had to be._

* * *

Chloe Sullivan pulled her legs out of bed, slipped her petite feet into the white bunny slippers waiting patiently on the floor, and shuffled over towards the mirror on the opposite side of her room in the upstairs apartment of the Talon in Smallville, Kansas. With a smile, she found that she was her blonde, short, and Chloe-self once more and _not_ her cousin.

A knock sounded at the door, followed by it opening without waiting for an answer from Chloe. She turned to glance towards the door as a grin grew as Clark Kent strode into the room bearing gifts. While he held a paper tray full of coffee and bagels, he glanced around the room in search of his best friend. "Peace offering for missing your party."

She shook her head and shrugged. "The casualties of being a hero. Not everyone could've punched through Zatanna's whammy and saved the day."

"I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you for reminding me who I really am."

"Yeah, I guess rebooting your superhero OS rekindled the Chloe fire." Clark grinned as Chloe crossed the room to stand in front of him. "Looks like hero support isn't just a day job anymore. And for that…" she began as she snatched the bag on top of the tray and peered inside. "We eat bagels," she added with a grin before moving towards the kitchen. "Do you remember everything?" she asked over her shoulder as Clark followed obediently.

"If you're referring to the 'just the fax man' routine…" Clark chuckled lightly as he nodded, but his expression stiffened slightly. "Though it did feel as if a weight had been lifted."

Chloe 'hum-ed'. "Must've been hard to harness up again."

"To be honest, a life without responsibility kind of felt a little empty. This is who I am, Chloe. Every morning I wake up with a purpose."

She smiled. "Yeah, you're not the only one who saw the world through irony colored glasses."

Clark grinned and nodded in remembrance, but once more his expression turned serious. "Why'd you wait so long before telling me what was going on?"

Chloe's mind raced as she tried to dig up some excuse. As everyone's personal secret keeper, surely she could come up with an excuse for herself, right? She glanced towards the floor in resignation before looking back to Clark. "Let's face it, Clark. My life has been a little less than desirable lately. I mean with Jimmy and everything…" she continued as she turned to move towards the couch.

"Chloe…" Clark tried as he followed.

"And I can't deny there is an appeal to the dynamic duo's weekly adventures," she added as she sat down, setting two plates full of bagels down on the table in front of her as Clark joined her opposite.

He sighed. "Well, you haven't missed much. Things haven't exactly been smooth between us lately."

Chloe watched Clark knowingly. "Look, I know you don't want to open a can of Kryptonian worms by telling her about your secret. But whether you like it or not, Lois Lane is a part of your life now. And… considering the non-stop puppy-dog eyes you give her," Clark's attention snapped away from the coffee and to Chloe, "I'm guessing you don't mind much at all." Though his face was clear, his blue eyes told all as his mind dug for an excuse of his own. "Clark, just because you got burned once doesn't mean that you can't give it a second chance."

Clark pressed his lips into a firm line. "Are we still talking about me? Or are we talking about you and Jimmy?"

Chloe looked thrown as she thought about it, the pain of everything Jimmy-related clear in her green eyes. "Touché. Okay, I'm talking about neither of us living in the past. You can never be who you want to be if you're always looking over your shoulder at what could have been."

Clark nodded slightly before lifting his coffee cup, "Cheers to that." Chloe gladly joined suit as they tapped paper cups and took a sip.

* * *

Oliver Queen rounded the corner to stride into his office in the top floor of the LuthorCorp tower with his cell phone in hand, only to stop in his tracks as he noticed who was waiting for him in his office. He sighed as he shifted his weight, debating whether to face her, call security, or turn back around entirely. But he slid his phone back inside his coat pocket and continued his pace further into his office. "What is this? Did you drop by to kick my ass again? So much fun for me the first time."

Zatanna Zatara smirked slightly once she heard his voice, but the smirk vanished as he strode behind her and towards his desk. She turned away from the photographs she had been looking at to face him, "I came to apologize. I just—"

"'Bound by steel'," he interrupted with a grimace of remembrance. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he nodded when he found her slightly dumbfounded. "Right? That's what you said to me, backwards. 'Bound by steel'. I had plenty of time to mull that over when you, uh, left me there, strung up to either die or have my identity revealed." He grabbed one of the water bottles on the drink bar next to his desk and took a swig.

"I can't ever totally make it up to you or your friends, but I would like to try and make sure that something like this doesn't happen again."

"Here's a thought: don't do it again," he replied sarcastically, but with an underlying seriousness to his tone.

She rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

"Hold on, just wait a second," Oliver started as he capped the bottle and set it back down as she stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face him again, impatience clear on her face. He held up his hand in defense as he sighed, trying to find the right thing to say that wouldn't insult her again. "I know how difficult the sacrifices you made must have been. Especially considering how hell-bent you were on getting what you wanted," he added with a slight smirk. Her expression softened. "Well, anyway, you made the tough choice and, um… I can respect that."

She nodded slightly, her mood improved. "Just know that there are far more dangerous people in the world than me. People with much greater control of the genuinely nasty magics than I do." Oliver nodded slightly, his dark eyes narrowing in understanding. "So," she continued as she withdrew a card from her pocket and handed it to him. "If you ever run into my kind of mischief again, call me. And wherever I am, this time, I'm on your side," she added with a smile.

Oliver smirked, "So, I guess this means you're taking your show on the road."

"Thinking about taking a little bit of time off to do some light reading. If I'm ever going to do my father proud, I've got a lot of catching up to do."

They both smiled at each other again before she turned to leave.

"Uh," Oliver began as he glanced down at the card in his hand, a confused expression on his face. She turned back around in the doorway, an eyebrow raised. "So, what is this exactly? Some kind of magic spell to summon you? I just hold it up and say your name a couple of times and, uh, 'poof' you appear?"

"It's my phone number," she patiently replied with a grin and a wink.

Oliver's eyebrows raised as his mouth formed an 'Oh' in understanding. Embarrassing understanding. "Oh." Looking back down at the card, he flipped it over to find 'Zatanna: Mistress of Magic – Metropolis – 555-0131' on the back in gold and red. He glanced back up towards Zatanna, but found her mysteriously gone again. Confused, his eyes shifted around cautiously before he fully glanced around his entire office to find himself completely alone.

* * *

Bruce Wayne put on his best playboy smile as he stepped up to the ticketing counter. The small, young Hispanic woman behind the counter beamed back and politely asked, "_Buenos tardes, señor. ?Como puedo ayudarle?_"

"_Me preguntaba si una línea aérea privada podría irse esta noche_," he replied in smooth Spanish, even though he was more familiar with such languages on the other side of the world as Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, Tibetan, Mandarin, and so forth. He'd had a lot of time when he was younger to study books and learn plenty of things, including languages.

"_Todas las líneas aéreas son cerradas debido a la rebelión_," she replied, slightly surprised by the fact that he could speak Spanish so fluently. But Bruce worked to keep the irritation out of his expression. "_Pero hay un aeroplano programado para irse para Los Ángeles en diez minutos. Y otros a Metropolis en veinticinco minutos_."

Bruce beamed. He never had any luck. Maybe putting up with Lex Luthor was enough to get him even the smallest streak._ "Fantástico. Iré a Metropolis, por favor. Gracias._"

She nodded and quickly began typing away at the computer in front of her. Quickly she had all of his information, as well as a check paying for the first class ticket, and was soon handing him his ticket over the counter. Pulling out his phone, Bruce strode down the airport terminal, heading for the nearest escalator and, in turn, his gate.

_"Yes, sir?"_

"Alfred, I sent you some files from the Wayne Enterprises facility in Mexico City. It's time to move Lex Luthor a little closer to home."

_"Is that exactly wise, sir? After all, wasn't it he who was trying to commit murder? Do we want him near people he knows again?"_

"I want him closer to me," Bruce answered without hesitating. "That, and if he does manage to find a way to escape, I'll know where he'll go."

_"Very well, sir. When shall I expect your return?"_

"I'll be in Metropolis in a few hours." He flipped his phone shut without another word and as he continued through the airport, he slipped the phone back inside his jacket pocket as he kept his briefcase, his only luggage, firmly in his other hand.

In a matter of minutes, he was on the plane, seated comfortably in an aisle seat with his suitcase stashed underneath the seat. The seat next to him was surprisingly empty, for now, so he leaned back and relaxed, being careful not to doze off too much even though it had now been over 48 hours since he'd gotten any sleep.

"Excuse me. Sorry! I'm so sorry. Pardon me—uh, !perdon me!"

Bruce lifted his eyebrows but only let his eyes slip slightly open to see who was making more noise than anyone else onboard the crowded plane. Even though it was first class, it was more crowded than a first class flight anywhere in the U.S. on an unimportant day. Most of the people on board were reporters, journalists, photographers, or business men, their press passes, cameras, and slick business suits giving them away. It was probably the only flight back to somewhere remotely close to the east coast and the larger cities for who knows how long.

But the woman who was trying to squeeze around people with two large bags on each arm was making more noise than everyone. "Ah!" She finally exclaimed as she stopped next to Bruce. Lifting her first bag, she tried her best to lift it above her shoulders, but it dropped back to the floor with a thud.

Keeping the grumble under his breath, Bruce fully opened his eyes to glance up at the brunette woman who looked like she had either spent a day in a tanning bed, or she had been out in the trenches of the revolt here in Mexico. Her hair also looked to be a mess and sweat was beading along her forehead. She'd almost missed her flight. Her eyebrows furrowed as her dark eyes determinedly glared at the bag as she tried to lift it again. But once more, it fell to the ground, earning a few disapproving looks from the people around her.

"Would you like some help?" Bruce finally offered now that he spotted the stewardess heading down the aisle to tell people to return to their seats.

Her eyes shot to his and after a quick glance to the bag, she shrugged. "Nah, I think I can handle it."

His eyebrows rose as he cast an obvious glance towards the approaching stewardess. She followed his gaze and quickly nodded in agreement. "You know what? Could you help me with this?" she asked as if he hadn't suggested it only a moment before.

Ignoring it, Bruce stood and easily lifted both bags to fit too snugly into the overhead crates before the stewardess got within three rows of them. With a smile, the woman slipped into the window seat as Bruce followed.

"Thanks. These airport terminals are crazy. And the cab drivers! You'd think they purposely try to get stuck in traffic!"

He offered her a smile and a nod in agreement. Once you got past the obviously overbearing personality, she obviously wasn't all that bad. And she wasn't unattractive by any means.

"My name's Lois," she added as she held out her hand.

"Bruce," he replied simply as he accepted her handshake.

* * *

Bruce Wayne strode into his study, fully dressed in a suit and tie, though he was still working on the tie, but he stopped short when he spotted someone aside from his faithful butler waiting for him inside.

"Bruce Wayne," Zatanna Zatara said over her shoulder as her violet eyes remained locked on the family portrait sitting on his desk. "Fits you better than John Smith." Bruce let a small smirk slip as he continued further into the room, his hands finishing working on his tie. "It doesn't sound so fake, either," she added as she turned around to face him.

"Nice to see you too, Zatanna," Bruce replied smartly as he rounded his desk.

"I see you're putting my father's lessons to good use." Bruce's eyebrows rose in innocent confusion. "I knew Oliver couldn't get himself out of his _situation_ without some help. Though why you're in Metropolis helping the Green Arrow is beyond me."

He smiled innocently as he stood on the opposite side of his desk from her, his hand grabbing the envelop he had headed in the room for. "Just being a good Samaritan. You should try it sometime."

"I think I will."

They both smiled coyly at each other, but finally Bruce's expression sobered. "I know you didn't come by just to say hello. What are you really doing here, Zatanna?"

Her smiled faded as well, and she glanced towards the large, leather-bound book on top of the table next to his desk. "I want you to look through it. I know my father would have wanted you to."

"Zatanna, I—"

She rounded the desk to stand in front of him as he turned to fully face her. "You were the only one aside from me that he let close enough to share his secrets with. Some of the things he taught you even I don't know how to perform." His eyes searched hers as he tried to find some excuse, some way to explain it. He didn't know why John had let him get so close. He had joined their act just to learn some ways to escape tough situations. Unfortunately, John had never warned him about this one. "You were like a son to him."

"Zatanna, I'm sure he would much rather you have it than I. You proved that you deserve that book more than anyone last night."

Her lips twitched into a warm smile. "So did you, Bruce. But, if you're not willing to accept, then I suppose I'll keep it," she added with a hint of sarcasm. Her hands suddenly moved to straighten his slightly cooked tie. "Are you staying in Metropolis for long?"

"Hopefully not," he replied with a small smile of his own. "Are you?"

She shrugged as she lowered her hands. "I think I'm going to go home, do some studying."

"Well then," Bruce began as he maneuvered around her and moved towards the door. "I wish you luck, Zatanna. But I do have an important…meeting tonight, so do excuse me if I don't see you out."

She quirked an eyebrow. "So professional. You know, I miss the Bruce that used to trip over his own two feet and get caught in traps all the time. This," she added as she glanced around the penthouse study, "isn't like you at all."

His gaze darkened slightly as it leveled on her. "You should know stage performance better than anyone, Zatanna." With that, he turned and returned back into the hall, leaving Zatanna smiling smugly to herself.

"Don't let it be another six years before I see you again, Bruce," she muttered to herself aloud.

* * *

Clark Kent sat at his desk in the Daily Planet, furiously typing away on his computer. But he quickly sighed, clearly annoyed with the creaking coming from Lois Lane's chair as she slowly rocked it back and forth from behind the desk across from him, her eyes trained on him as her hands were folded across her lap, her expression saying that she was just dying for Clark to say something. Aside from behind three shades tanner, she was the same Lois Lane as she always was, though she was a little more reflective once Chloe had told her everything that had gone one while she was in Mexico.

Clark sighed yet again and finally stopped typing as he glanced around his computer and quickly, and irritatedly, asked aloud, "Is there something on your mind, Lois?"

She gave him a content smile, glad to irritate him as well as gain his attention. "So how long did it take for you to realize that I wasn't my usual charming self?"

Clark paused before looking back to his computer. "Well, I have to admit, I should've picked up on it sooner. You weren't as _bossy _as usual." She still wore that content smile, her eyes shifting away subtly before returning to Clark. "And Chloe let me drive," Clark added with a smile.

"Well, little blonde sources tell me that you don't mind my assertive flare."

Clark glanced back up with a sinking feeling. Just how much _had_ Chloe told Lois?

She sighed as she leaned forward, propping her elbows on her desk as her eyes darted towards his. "Let me see it."

"Lois, I don't know what you're talking about."

Her eyebrows rose. "You have a terrible poker face, Smallville." She rose, rounded their desks, and now leaned against his desk, hand outstretched as his eyes nervously followed her. "Gimme, gimme."

He released a resigned sigh and lightly pounded the top of his desk with his fist before pulling open the top drawer and withdrawing the framed list. He quickly and subtly glanced around before handing it to her, which she snatched up greedily. Her smart-ass smile quickly faded to a sentimental one as she looked over it. "Wow. Who would've known you were this sentimental." Clark didn't know what to say, but he rolled his eyes when she stood up from the side of the desk and started up again. "I think we should hang it up so that everyone can see it," she began as she held it up in the air, admiring it.

Clark sighed as he stood, snatching the frame back from Lois. "This is a memento of my first day on the job." Lois folded her arms and raised her eyebrows as Clark shifted uneasily under her gaze. "And a constant reminder that there is only one Lois Lane."

She nodded with a smile and replied quietly, "You'd better believe it."

Turning, she snatched her bag and jacket from her chair with a sigh of her own as she began to gather things off her desk. Clark watched her with obvious curiosity. "Big night?"

"Yeah, this guy in first class asked me out and I figured, why the hell not, right?"

Clark did his best to look disinterested as he shrugged. But Lois kept that knowing smile to a minimum as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "What about you? Big plans?"

"Uh, I'm just gonna hang around here, you know, follow up on a few things. Do you want me to call you if anything comes through the wire, see if you're available?"

"You mean if you want to stand me up again?" she replied unenthusiastically.

Clark tried to untie his tongue. "Lois, that was—"

"A mistake. Agreed. Why don't we just table this whole office-thrown-together-in-the-trenches-sparks-thing, okay? Back to basics. Keep the game on the field."

He nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, that's a good rule."

She smiled with a nod of her own. "You should add that to the list." She strode past him and he watched her disappear towards the elevator, casting only one glance at the list in his hand as a small smile he couldn't help appeared.

* * *

Chloe Sullivan waited patiently in the Isis Foundation office, her thoughts running through her mind. Oliver Queen suddenly opened the door and acknowledged her with a nod before fully entering the room and shutting the door behind him. "Ready?"

Chloe stood from her seat anxiously. "Ready as you are."

The pair strode through the office and towards the hidden back room, but Oliver hesitated only a few steps in. "Chloe," he started, causing her to stop and turn around to face him. "This will mean leaving your old life as a reporter behind. You sure you want to say goodbye to that forever?"

She smiled and glanced down at her feet before looking back to Oliver. "You know, yesterday I wouldn't have been able to answer that question, but after spending the day at the Daily Planet I realized that… that's someone else's life."

She turned and continued striding through the office as Oliver smiled before following. "You know what's interesting is that everyone seems to have so much clarity after a dose of the Zatanna dust. Almost makes me wish I had my turn at the magic lamp, too."

Chloe stopped at a table with a small, black box on top. Sliding back the lid, she removed an ear piece and a blinking remote. "I'll save you the heel blisters." She glanced towards him again. "You already know what you really want." His eyes narrowed slightly. "We all do. We just don't listen." She handed him the ear piece, his expression back to normal after his slight scare.

He glanced from her to the earpiece before taking it. "And you're sure this is it."

She smiled with a small nod. "This is where I belong." Aiming the remote towards the bookcase they were standing in front of, she pressed the button on it, causing the remote to beep and the bookcase to slide open, revealing a room full of computer screens and a lone keyboard with two smaller monitors in front of it in the center of the room. Chloe stepped forward to stand in front of the keyboard as her eyes glanced around the screens while one by one they switched on.

_"Aquaman online."_ A screen switched to show a picture of Arthur Curry, his current location, his file, and his current health statistics. "_Canary online."_ Another screen._ "Cyborg online. Impulse online."_

Oliver put the earpiece on and stood next to Chloe, "Arrow online."

She smiled before putting her own earpiece into her ear, "Watchtower's officially online. Let's get to work."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Translations:  
_Buenos tardes, señor. ?Como puedo ayudarle? _- Good afternoon, sir. How can I help you?  
_Me preguntaba si una línea aérea privada podría irse esta noche. _- I was just wondering what the chances of a private airline departing tonight are._  
Todas las líneas aéreas son cerradas debido a la rebelión.__ - _I am afraid that all of the private airlines are closed because of the revolt.  
_Pero hay un aeroplano programado para irse para Los Ángeles en diez minutos. Y otros a Metropolis en veinticinco minutos_. - But there is a flight scheduled to depart to Los Angeles in ten minutes. And another to Metropolis in twenty five minutes.  
_Fantástico. Iré a Metropolis, por favor. Gracias._ - Wonderful. I would like to go to Metropolis, please. Thank you.  
_Perdon me_. - Excuse me.


End file.
